The Worst Things Imaginable
by On The Moon At Last
Summary: When Lena discovers a frightened Kara on the roadside, she takes the Kryptonian in. The CEO has deduced Kara's identity and offers to help her get back on her feet- especially now that the superhero is inexplicably with child! Elsewhere, the DEO discovers both the survival of the Kryptonian war criminal Zod, a nefarious connection to Kara's new situation, and the return of Astra!
1. Impossible

Kara could not recall how she got where she was. She certainly remembered the day before, the several painful days before. Those horrid experiences would be burned into her memory for a very long time, if not forever. Where was she, you ask? On the side of a road, huddled into a fetal position as the rain poured down around her. Her cape offered minimal protection from the elements, but what little respite it provided from the downpour was preferable to being completely soaked. She lay there and begged for sleep. Not death, as she would have even just a year ago had the violation occurred, but sleep. She wasn't used to feeling like this, helpless and afraid. She knew from where she had come, what had been done to her, but the interim between escape and her current location was a blank. She vaguely perceived headlights coming her way. Looking up from the protection of the red garment, she squinted and called out. "Hey! Hey, over here!"

Lena was driving home late that night. A lot of people assumed she lived in her office. They couldn't be more wrong. Her real home was outside National City, a small place in the woods. It was quaint, hardly giving away the secret of its sole occupant's affluence. Just because Lena was rich didn't mean she had to look it. She believed in humility and grace, the polar opposite of her adoptive family. The more Lena thought of it, the more she realized how little in common she ultimately had with the Luthor dynasty. How little in common she had with Lex specifically. Ironic. Coming upon the red by the roadside, it took her a while to also make out the blue in the rain. Red, blue. Clothing.

SUPERGIRL!

Pulling to a screeching halt, Lena vaulted from the vehicle and shielded the superheroine from the rain. "Supergirl! Supergirl!" Lena was shocked and practically crying at seeing the Maiden of Might in such a state. She seemed so small. When Kara finally did look up at her, Lena's heart broke even more. What the hell could bring such a wonderful person to their knees like this? Helping the vigilante into the backseat, Lena helped Kara to lie down.

"You're all right, Kara. Everything is going to be fine."

Wait… Kara? How did Lena know? It wasn't important enough for Kara to waste time on as she drifted into unconsciousness.

Waking two days later in a hospital, Kara's eyes snapped open. She was prepared to talk or fight her way out, the latter option bringing back memories of the predicament that led to her current hospital stay, but her gaze softened when she saw Lena standing by her bedside like some Rao-sent sign of peace. She audibly sighed.

"Lena! Hey. What happened?"

"I found you unconscious or close to it by the side of the road. We're at the hospital now. You're safe."

"The hospital?" How many people had seen her in the time she had been her? How secret was her secret? Was it even a secret anymore? "Lena? Where are my clothes?"

"You're safe, it's fine. We're at the DEO."

"What? How did you-?"

"The same way I figured out you're Supergirl. Simple deduction. Detective work. Don't worry, though, your secret is safe with me Kara. I won't tell."

Kara relaxed a little. How could she be certain she wouldn't accidentally let it slip? Looking around, she recognized the environment surrounding them. This was certainly the DEO. Kara tried to get up. To say it was difficult was an understatement. She felt groggy, as though the room would begin spinning at any given moment for an indeterminate length of time. In response, she resolved to simply lay back and look either at Lena or the ceiling. "You promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise," Lena smiled, as if the pact were the most ordinary thing in the world. As though it was something already unspoken and she was merely giving it a voice. The CEO touched Kara's shoulder. "I have the weekend off. Being the CEO of a company gives you those perks. I'll stay here for as long as you need me, Kara."

Kara was touched by this act. It was always the little things that meant the most to her. "Thank you."

When the DEO physicians gave Kara the go-ahead to be discharged three days later, she requested an ultrasound after feeling something different in her abdomen. A heat she was unused to and it concerned her mightily. Kara asked Alex to be present, for her strength, and she wasn't disappointed. As her adoptive big sister held one hand and Lena held the other, Kara's eyes grew big as saucers as the ultrasound wand, specially augmented for extraterrestrial life forms in case they needed surgery and a peek inside was needed, glided over her uterus. She could see it, a little bean of a thing. She could hear a heartbeat. Alex's jaw dropped. If the situation wasn't so unexpected, it would be comical. Kara didn't even notice that Maggie, Winn, and J'onn were also in the room.

"Is that…" Lena's voice trailed off.

"Yeah," the tech confirmed. "Kara is pregnant."

"But how is that possible?" The Kryptonian was utterly flabbergasted. "I can't- not here, I-"

"Hey," Alex soothed, "it's okay. We'll figure it out."

"You don't get it," Kara huffed.

"Then explain it to me, Kara," Alex sighed.

"Kryptonian pregnancies are different than those of humans. You already know our physiology is way different. We age slower than humans, our genetic makeup is much more complex. If I'm pregnant, I can't be Supergirl for a long time."

"Forty weeks will fly by fast," Maggie piped up. "I was on this undercover assignment once for almost three years, and-"

"Kryptonian pregnancies can last anywhere from eighty to ninety weeks," Kara blurted out. "If this is right, I'd have to give up being Supergirl for over two years."

It was so silent in that room one might be able to literally hear a pin drop without an alien's augmented sense of hearing. How would anyone deal with something like that? How could Kara be pregnant for that long and not go stir-crazy? The latter inquiry was painted all over the other women's faces. What about Kara herself? Would she have to go into hiding or temporarily retire from public life for over two years in order to not arouse suspicion?

"You can stay with me," Lena practically screeched.

"Lena, you don't have to do that for me," Kara blushed.

"I want to. I want to, Kara. Please let me. My house is outside of the city, it's remote and in the woods. It's on a hill, actually, it's perfect. I- I mean, if you want. Alex can come visit whenever she can. You all can," she looked at the assembled Superfriends in the room.

"I believe it would be best," J'onn nodded in confirmation, though the Danvers sisters could swear that his eyes glowed a threatening red from behind his human visage in Lena's general direction for the briefest of microseconds. They couldn't blame him.

On the drive to Lena's house, Kara couldn't stop staring at the picture the ultrasound tech had given her. She wasn't entirely sure what she would do, but her eyes remained fixed on the marking somewhere on the little bean.

All Kryptonians designated the genetic makeup of their offspring through biological markers in the shape of the house's crest. There was the "S" symbol for the House of El, but also something that resembled a sickle merged with the human letter "Z". That could only mean one thing, and it made Kara as terrified as it made her blood boil. How could that be? How could any of this be happening? The male genetic marker was the crest of the House of _**ZOD**_.


	2. Feelings

The next three weeks flew by for Kara, no pun intended. She was officially eight weeks along when the mothering started in from Lena. Lena was a gracious host, which surprised no one, and a calm yet stern protector. In ways, a little overprotective. She wouldn't let Kara carry anything Lena couldn't carry herself, she wouldn't let Kara climb stairs by herself. While all of this was completely unnecessary and they both knew it, Kara actually found it rather endearing. "I have quite a long time before this is needed," Kara told her, "I won't even start showing until 30 weeks." Lena smiled politely and backed off a little but still watched over the pregnant Kryptonian like a hawk at every available opportunity. Whenever Kara would exit the house, Lena would always accompany her or have one of the team do so when she had work obligations.

One day, when Kara was with Lena in the nearest available supermarket, the ladies ran across Clark. While Mr. Steel-Under-That-Kansas-Wheat was understandably hesitant about Kara living with a Luthor, he assented once he learned of the pregnancy. Not to say he wasn't wary of that as well, but the more pressing matter to him was the cohabitation of a Super and a Luthor.

"Kara, wow! Congrats!" the be-speckled reporter hugged his cousin. "That, um, that's really great." But he knew. Of course he knew. In fact, the first thing Kara did upon agreeing to stay with Lena was fly over to Metropolis and inform Clark of the situation. He'd been appropriately concerned but ultimately worried for her safety above all else. There hadn't been any Kryptonians on Earth long enough in decades past to see how a pregnancy would be effected by the changes brought about by solar radiation from a yellow sun. Would it even effect the developing fetus at all? Although Kara was still deciding how she felt about the whole thing, she had elected not to take any chances. She went to the DEO's cave base twice a week for recharging of the red-sun patch Alex and Lena developed for her; the device kept Kara's body just human enough to ensure the fetus developed without interruption or risk of miscarriage. The idea of aborting it came up once or twice but Kara was adamantly against it. Termination was not thought of positively on Krypton; all sentient life was viewed as "from Rao" and therefore had to be respected. That was the reason the planet's clergymen gave anyway; the scientific reason that swayed popular opinion was the increased sterility of Kryptonians as a result of the genetic engineering that allowed Kryptonians to attain what humans might call biological perfection. No disease could assail them, no defects present at birth or during gestation. One might call it ableist or elitist, but it was the Kryptonian way by the time Kara came along. Rampant xenophobia was certainly a thing, too, as well as a huge superiority complex. "Therefore," Alura's hologram would tell Kara and Lena during their visits to the facility, "any successful attempt at biological reproduction was to be encouraged and celebrated even if the pregnancy did not survive to viability." Lena was made visibly uncomfortable by the rigidity and unwavering conservativism of it all and so her visits to the hologram decreased steadily until she stopped accompanying Kara at all unless it was an educational call. No one at the DEO knew what a Kryptonian pregnancy was really supposed to look like, how the fetus was supposed to behave or develop, any of it; it wasn't like the laypeople could aid any further. "Imagine if the tabloids got a hold of you," Lena pointed out.

This actually ended up being how their first real argument began when Kara's inhuman patience finally hit the end of its rope after a particularly trying day at work.

"Supergirl being pregnant is only going to embolden the bad guys because they'll know you'll be vulnerable."

"Well what am I supposed to do, Lena?! Hide out here for two years like I'm some girl from- a couple hundred years ago? I thought pregnancy wasn't considered shameful here." While Kara knew it wasn't exactly considered taboo or shameful here, the same couldn't be said of some of the other planets she had visited in her youth.

"It's not," Lena countered, "it's just treated a bit differently. There's a fragility associated with pregnancy on Earth and I don't want you getting hurt."

Kara huffed and plopped down onto the couch in the living room. "I'm not some china doll, Lena," she rolled her eyes,  
"and I would really appreciate it if you would stop treating me like one. Is this how you're gonna be for the next seventy-something weeks?"

The last barb took Lena off-guard. While Kara had a point, her tone stung. It wasn't something she was used to from the bubbly brunette. Instead of answering the question that was rhetorical anyway, Lena blinked several times and strode out of the living room to her own quarters on the fourth floor. Even without her super-hearing, Kara clearly heard the door slam shut behind the businesswoman. On instinct, Kara flew up to the fourth floor and knocked on Lena's bedroom door.

"Lena, I'm sorry."

When the Luthor opened the door, her eyes were puffy and red from crying. Interesting, it hadn't been much of a time discrepancy had it? Clearly, Kara's words effected Lena more than either let on.

"It's just… I-" the older woman stuttered. "I can't have children, Kara. I can't have them and all I want is for you to be careful with yours. I don't know how important preservation of your race is to you, but that's sort of what this is. Right? How does that make you feel?"

"According to the markers, the child's father is a war criminal from my planet. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to be a good mother to it knowing that."

"If that's what you decide you want to do, then so be it. It's your body, Kara. Wait, what? Marker, what do you mean?"

"Golly," Kara exhaled loudly. "That's a story. Back when the sterility was it its worst, before the birthing matrices were invented, biological reproduction was a requirement of every heterosexual couple. Well, we didn't really have a word for- you know, a male and a female pairing, but- hey whatever. Um, anyway, intermingling between the castes were forbidden and to prevent any… hanky-panky, there were genetic markers from each parent. The parent's House Crest was imprinted into the DNA of the developing baby. It was really weird and discontinued shortly after it was made law but the genetic aspect of it remained. According to the sonogram image I took home, the child's biological father is a man named Lor-Zod. He was the person I was betrothed to before his dad went crazy. That's a whole other story. Another time."

"I appreciate your honesty, Kara, but you don't have to tell me all of this right now."

"No, I want to. You need to know. Besides, I want you to know things about me. The real me, not Supergirl or Kara Danvers. Who I was before I was on Earth." Kara grabbed both sides of Lena's head and rested their foreheads against each other. "You are important to me, Lena."

Oh, if only Kara knew just how important she was to Lena. The only obstacle was the probability of Kara not feeling the same way. Every single time the youngest Luthor put herself out there with anyone it always ended with her getting shot down, having to mend a broken heart. Even though she had become accustomed to rejection, Lena was still hesitant to say anything to Kara. Was such a thing even appropriate given this incredibly unique circumstance?

"You're important to me, too, Kara," Lena smiled. She had stopped crying by this point and her heart soared at the physical contact the two shared.

The next day Lena resolved to do something she never considered before: visiting the alien bar the so-called Superfriends frequented. She wondered if the establishment had a proper name, but that was neither here nor there. Although she ended up getting lost twice on her way to the bar, she eventually nabbed a seat with Maggie.

"Thanks for meeting with me," Lena greeted and smiled politely.

"Of course. Kara is Alex's sister and if there's anything going on involving her I want to help in any way I can."

"Well, um…" Lena started, "it's not so much about her as it is about me." The pale-skinned brunette could feel herself blushing as she spoke.

"How do you mean? I- oh, oh-ho, Luthor!"

Maggie recognized the same body language in Lena from when Alex came out to her. She reached across the table, gently squeezed Lena's hand, and offered an encouraging smile.

"What do you think I should do? Should I just push it down and let it die or tell her?"

"If you're not 500% about it, don't say anything. If it's something you're sure of and something you need to tell her, then do it. Take it from someone who's been there: suffering in silence is never fun."

"Okay!" Lena blurted with an forced smile. It wasn't so much that the conversation was making her uncomfortable, so much as the glares and other disparaging looks she could feel on the back of her head from the non-human patrons of the bar. A brisk walk in the direction opposite the detective and Lena was spared further discomfort and embarrassment. She resolved to return home and inform Kara of her feelings, consequences be damned. She never believed in living in fear. That was a sign of weakness, of emotional immaturity. Taking risks and doing what made one happy were the most important things in Lena's life. She would do this, she would take this risk.

Upon arriving home, Lena found Kara sitting on the couch watching something mindless on television. "Hey, Kara, how was your evening?" Stupid, she had only been gone two hours. What kind of question was that, Lena?

"It was actually really nice! I talked to Alex, J'onn came over to check on me and Mon-El offered his congratulations through a very bizarrely-worded text."

Lena perked up. She loved how emotionally open and available Kara was. She wasn't guarded or cynical; the polar opposite of Lena. The CEO needed some of that in her life.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah, sure!" The humanoid puppy smiled with her eyes and scooted over, patting the space she once occupied, a gesture of wanting Lena to join her as if to say, 'it's warm!'. Lena did as her friend requested. God, she hoped this went well. By well, she meant that she retained her positive and happy relationship with Kara regardless of the outcome of the conversation.

"Um, Kara. I've been wanting to tell you something for a bit now and I-"

Without warning, Kara took hold of Lena's face and kissed her hard. Kissed her again, and again. Five times in total.

"Me too."


	3. Zod

_**A/N: Zachary Quinto is my FC for DCTV's version of General Zod.**_

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 _The Phantom Zone was precisely the dark, maddening, inhospitable place everyone thought it to be when we Kryptonians first discovered it in what humans would call the 9_ _th_ _century anno domini. I, Dru-Zod, former leader of Krypton's military guild, have known this to be true for some five years now. I believe all hope to be lost, at least for myself and those condemned to this hell with me. My son, Lor, was taken on a scouting expedition to a nearby world shortly before my capture so I am thankful that those inferior, self-righteous scientists spared him the humiliation of my defeat. Yes, that is the human word. English, I think is the language's name. Faora began teaching it to our son after her Council-funded observation of the planet Terra. I inquired as to the purpose of her departure, why she would want to study such a primitive planet. She informed me that exploration of our closest intellectual equals would be beneficial to understanding "the apex of cultures", by which she of course meant Krypton. The_ _Terrans_ _humans believe themselves to be the top of the food chain and yet they cannot conceive of anything beyond their infinitesimally small nine(?)-planet solar system. I am, however, suspicious of their overall intellect when they decided to name a large rock formation Pluto and say it is a planet. It is an astrological body, certainly, but a planet? I am unsure. So perhaps it is simply eight planets, or seven. I never can remember. They are a young species with much to learn in any case. Perhaps, if my soldiers and I are to ever reach the planet, we may teach them to improve upon themselves. When Faora arrived on Earth, it was what the humans called "the summer of '69" and Lor was becoming a young man of ten. By now, it is the Terran year 1979, and my son is twenty. The same age as I when I ascended to the rank of general. My mind has become too addled by the lack of time in this hellhole, and therefore I shall hitherto refer to all dates by their Terran designations._

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 _My body tells me it is time for rest and yet I cannot rest. I have sat writing all of my thoughts into this small notebook- a journal, Faora calls it- for hours and it is intoxicating. The Science Council, of which Alura Zor-El is the leader, thinks me evil. The Science Council! Horrendous, shortsighted, and ignorant! Do they not see the fate rushing toward us?! The planet is doomed if we continue to recklessly utilize the core for our own ends. I- wait? What is that? A flash of light! A Kryptonian pod has entered the Zone. I shall conclude this entry here, and go out into this hell in search of it._

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 _I have returned. The pod contained the sleeping form of one KARA Zor-El. If Faora did not sleep beside me, she would beg me to take the girl in. I do not deny that I was tempted to leaving her to this fate, floating around aimlessly as we do in this cramped little prison ship, but I thought the better of it. Fort Rozz is here as well, which Alura deemed to be far too good for me and mine. I cannot begin to describe the inadequacy of the environment in which we have been placed, but- AH! I am off-course again. Kara Zor-El, she was the impetus of this entry and not my grievance at the space we have been allotted. Kara, who I thought better of than her parents if only due to her betrothal to my son, is alone now. I accessed the pod's memory files and it appears its unstable core has indeed destroyed Krypton. Astra, Kara's aunt who assumed command of the military guild in the event of my exile here, rots along with us for attempting to save the planet. Cruel irony. She was always a good soldier, excepting her betrayal of our plans to the Science Guild. An opportunity no doubt taken advantage of by Non. That controlling bastard believed me unfit for rule and coerced Astra into carrying out a coup of his own. If what we did could even be called a coup! It was necessary for our survival! The Science Council was unfit and needed a proper replacement. What better replacement that the Military Guild? I have been informed by an outside source that Daxam was not destroyed but all the same rendered uninhabitable by Krypton's destruction. I attempted to give Kara the mercy of a stable environment by bringing the pod into this small prison ship but the pod floated out of reach before I could use my own pod's grappling cables to pull it in. A shame. With any luck, we shall never see her again and her vessel will somehow find its way out of the Phantom Zone. If it does not, I pray to Rao that the denizens of Fort Rozz do not discover her. My detractors may have called me "extreme" but I would not see a child harmed. I believe it is finally time for me to take my own rest. My hibernation chamber is in the same room as my beloved wife's, as fate would have it._

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 _I have awoken. According to the Coluan technological being Brainiac, who has awoken us, two-dozen years have passed since the arrival of Kara Zor-El. To my dismay, she did not discover a way out of this monstrous dimension. But now Brainiac has linked us to her vessel, and the instrument of our damnation has become our salvation._

 _I was aware of the abilities Terra would provide us, given the output of its yellow sun, but the extent of the abilities eluded me until now. I am capable of flight, I can see through matter both organic and inorganic. My strength is greatly increased, as is my stamina; the greatest change afforded by the environment is my newfound flight. I have been on this planet for three days now and I am capable of flight! Oh, wondrous! Brainiac 8, who now refers to herself as Indigo, has gone into hiding but she was gracious enough to inform me of the survival of Kal-El, son of my former best friend Jor-El of the science guild. He has grown up to become what the public calls a superhero, and he is given the moniker "Superman". The El family was too convinced of their own righteousness and they allowed our home to be wiped from existence! I think it best to visit Kal-El, attempt to reason with him so that he may help in the rediscovery of Kryptonian society. One day, we may even be capable of a Terran-Kryptonian joint society. Not ideal, but I shall take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the survival of the Kryptonian species. If he does not see reason then I may be forced to consider him antagonistic to the interests of his race._

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 _My meeting with Kal-El did not go as planned. If one requires further proof, simply look at his apartment. His human mate Lois described it "like a tornado went through here". It appears she is unaware of any connection between Kal-El, who she refers to as Clark Kent, and Superman. Oh, the simplicity of the human mind. I discussed the matter with Faora, and she believes the most advantageous course of action would be to lay low for the time being._

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 _Kara has grown up to become a hero in her own right, wholly independent of Superman or the Bat in Gotham City. I am proud of her. She has defeated government androids, mutated humans with superpowers, and even bested Non, in combat. While Faora and I were saddened to hear of Astra's passing, we have used the defeat of the Fort Rozz escapees to bring the soldiers under Astra's command under our wing once more. Our race must survive, and any avenue I take to ensure that survival is justified in my eyes. The issue is this: when I, my wife, and our soldiers perish, all that will remain of our great species will be the El cousins. I will not have that. Our knowledge must not perish with them. Our people must live on outside of the so-called Fortress of Solitude._

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_I have put our few scientists to the task of discovering a way to make our genetic makeup compatible with humanity's. I will update as more information is available._

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_Huzzah! The impossible has been proven possible! Through a reorganization of our genetic codes, both human and Kryptonian reproductive cells are now compatible. Jax-Ur believes it now a reality to create hybrids. Again, not the ideal we had hoped for, but it is what is available to us at this time. A historic day for us: January 7_ _th_ _, 2017._

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 _Kara has come willingly to us. In addition to the above, we have found my son alive! Lor lives, the House of Zod will not die with me. My son lives! I do not cry, and I have not a praying man for some time and I have done both this day._

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 _Kara and Lor got along well prior to Krypton's destruction, so they have told me. He returned shortly after my exile to find that the betrothal was discontinued. Alura felt it would "shame" Kara, "put an end to her honor", for her to continue to be attached in any way to the House of Zod. Despite this, my son and Alura's daughter remained close friends for the next half-decade until the planet was no more. Lor tells me my branch of the family was similarly disgraced. Although his survival came as a shock to her, Kara has agreed to take part in the procedure. We are testing to see if the changes to Kryptonian physiology would effect the gestational period._

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 _Kara is with child! We are overjoyed, but her reticence to accept me as more than some monster is disconcerting. Kara Zor-El does not like me, and part of me cannot blame her. The stories of my actions, the tales of my savagery in battle, would be no cause for friendship for her. I see that now. A strong moral code resides in her, just as it does with her cousin._

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 _Five weeks since Kara has conceived. Kal-El paid us a visit today. Once he discovered the… other subjects, the humans, he grew indignant and accused us of running a "baby factory". One subject, who was recently impregnated by her own will, he recognized as someone named Dinah Laurel Lance. A friend of his from Starling City who acts as the legal counsel for the company L-Corp. The latter information was why she was selected, but I was unaware of the connection to Kal-El. Note: the media refers to me as "Superman's arch-nemesis". I find that description appalling. He is the one who is antagonistic to progress, to my goals. He is small-minded and his interruptions of my plans are irksome. I hope he does not twist Kara's view of this facility into something abhorrent and negative._

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 _Kal informed Kara of the others and she promptly became most irate. There was a bit of a scuffle between her and the guards on the way out; she hit her head. No doubt that will prove to incur memory loss of some sort._

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 _One of our spies has reported that Kara has begun to cohabitate with Lena Luthor. A pity about her brother, Lex. In another life, he and I could have been partners. The Department of Extra-normal Operations has taken upon themselves to create a sort of patch for Kara in order to ensure her body remains "human" enough. Soon they will discover that the device is wholly unnecessary, but we will continue to monitor Kara and my unborn grandchild closely. For now, we will continue to create hybrids._


	4. Discrepancies

The days Kara didn't spend worshipping the toilet were occupied by various unsuccessful attempts at staying awake. The 9-week mark was just around the corner, she would tell herself. She'd be okay if she could make it to then. The sleep issue, she knew, would not be abated so easily. Most nights she had horrific nightmares, memories flooding her mind at odd intervals. Kara had kept quiet about her memory loss, not wanting to cause anyone undo stress. Lena was much more perceptive than most people gave her credit for, she was a Luthor after all. Well, half a Luthor but still. One particularly trying day ended with Kara bawling in her lap. Lena figured it was due to exhaustion, her body using the "oh if I cry I'll tire her out" approach and Lena let Kara do whatever she needed to do. She thought of bringing up last night's kiss but then forced that idea down; it would be most inappropriate to make Kara even more anxious about anything at the moment. The brunette stroked the blonde's hair lightly in an attempt to soothe her in some capacity.

"It was… so… horrible, Lena…"

"What was it, Kara? What was horrible?"

"Everything! They took me… I was gone- five weeks…"

The memory loss must've been more extensive than anyone realized, Lena made a mental note to tell Alex this as soon as possible. Kara was gone a lot longer than five weeks. In fact, she had been missing for the entire summer and most of August. No one knew Kara Danvers in National City, though, so Supergirl's identity was not in danger of being compromised. Alex had taken up an intriguing new identity, and Lena made another mental note to tell Alex that she needed to tell Kara. The CEO never realized how anyone could like bats but it worked for Alex and that was enough for Lena.

"Do you wanna talk about it, babe?" Lena offered. Not pushy, just friendly support and curiosity. Kara had fallen asleep in her lap, making the offer a bit ineffective. Lena considered moving for a split second, but upon noticing Kara's angelic form could not bear to do so. How could someone wake something so stunning from much-needed rest?

Truth be told, Lena was terrified for Kara. What did all of this mean? Would she ever be able to be Supergirl again, at least in the foreseeable future? Would Clark temporarily abandon his alter ego to help out? No one ever asked men these questions. What the fuck, bro? Besides, Kara's a Kryptonian and therefore not beholden to human gender roles or standards. She could figure out how to keep all of this under wraps later. She was a Luthor, strategy was in her very blood.

An hour later Kara awoke, yawning like a sleepy kitten. Still too groggy to form words, she simply nodded in apology. Lena smiled back, as if to say 'no problem'. Kara got up and dragged herself to the kitchen. She hadn't ever really had the opportunity before now to really appreciate the quiet Lena's cabin in the woods offered her, and her of all people could appreciate some much-needed peace and quiet. The wood was smooth, a fine strong oak. Adorning the walls were paintings of every season and the various activities in which one could partake therein: ice fishing, sunbathing, tennis, yoga, it was all so cute! The reporter had only been there for a little over a month and she already couldn't imagine staying anywhere else. She was alone, metaphorically. Sure, she had Lena and the little baby growing inside her, but… she had Lena. That singular woman's mere existence was suddenly incredibly important to her. Not that it wasn't before, but now Lena meant the world to her. More than ever, Kara just wanted to be with Lena in whatever form or fashion that manifested. The suddenness of the feeling sort of scared Kara, what if she said no? What if the kiss was a fluke or whatever? Every single time she put herself out there, the other party's answer was always the same: _You're great, but…_

Rao forbid she be happy for once. Opening the cabinet above the stove, she grabbed a cup and filled it with tap water before marching over to Lena.

"Lena. I have a few things I need to tell you. About the abduction, about what happened."

Lena sat up straight and readjusted on the couch so that her entire body was angled toward Kara. Her eyes became much more alert and simultaneously sympathetic. "Whatever happened, Kara, you can tell me," she took one of Kara's hands in both of hers for emphasis on the whole 'you're safe with me' thing.

Visibly relaxing at Lena's touch, Kara took a deep breath and started in on the very long story she couldn't keep inside any longer.

&&&&**((((((((&&&&&&%%%%%%%%$$$$$$$#########

Lor was completely bald. That was the first thing he and Kara joked about when they saw each other for the first time in decades. Looking at himself in the mirror of his quarters, he chuckled at his reflection. One might say he resembled Lex Luthor if not for Lor's more angular jaw line and piercing grey eyes. But today was not a day for remembering, not for him. He had uncovered his father's journal; the entries dating all the way back to 1979 and almost every single day since was accounted for. Skimming through, he had unintentionally stumbled upon the passages pertaining to Kara's "stay" at the facility. Zod characterized her as a willing participant in the trials. The Last Daughter of Krypton had been anything but, according to her fear and disorientation the day she left. What could his father be keeping from his only son? This was why Lor presently marched toward his father's office.

General Zod was had become accustomed to many things over the years. Having his journal thrown violently through- not just on, but _through_!- his desk as if the desk were paper was not one of them.

"Lor?!" He sprang to his feet. "What is the meaning of this? I am meditating!"

"Meditating on what, hmm? How you're going to screw over the humans? How you're going to continue this experiment whether the human women involved are willing or not?!"

"Son, I do understand what you are implying-"

"Do not lie to me! Did you kidnap Kara? Did you order your mad scientist Jax-Ur to kidnap Kara and bring her here?"

Zod stood straight, eyes boring into Lor's. That was all the confirmation that Lor required and he sucker punched his father. If Zod were human, the blow would have broken his neck twice over. Most likely make it spin three-hundred-and-sixty degrees as though he were a cartoon character, on top of that. The general scoffed but did not retaliate.

"How could you do that? I understand continuing the species, but… father! It has dawned on me the magnitude of your savagery. You would take her from her home and force her to run tests to see if she was a suitable mother for- not even a mother, a glorified incubator! Why? Because you knew I loved her in my youth?"

"Because she is ideal and now she carries the continuation of our bloodline. Son, she is vital."

"How could you even coerce her into undergoing the procedure in the first place?"

"Jax-Ur devised some sort of chemical concoction, an elixir if you will, to induce passivity and suggestibility in the subject. As far as Kara Zor-El knew, she was here because she wanted to be. She came willingly to us," he quoted his own obviously biased journal entry.

Lor's eyes blazed with rage at his father's assertion. "She did not! Look at these discrepancies! I take it you have done the same to the women here? They are in their mid-to-late twenties at the eldest, barely more than children! Most of them are still actively involved in some form of scholastic opportunities!"

If Lor's words had any effect on Dru-Zod, general of the Kryptonian army, he did not demonstrate it whatsoever.

"It is atrocious and immoral and I shall not stand for it! If the humans wish to procreate with us, then let them come of their own free will, allow them to consent."

"Do breeding stock consent to their existence, or try to run from it or otherwise deny it? Do they, son? No, they perform their purpose."

"Breeding stock are generally disposed of when their usefulness has run its course."

"Indeed, Lor."

Lor-Zod could not find a word to describe his father's behavior. Left with the only response available to his rapidly spinning head, he spat in Zod's face and departed the office.

Smirking, Zod wiped his face clean with his hand and turned to look out the window at the vast number of cubicles before him. Inside each of these cubicles was a woman. Each woman was supplied with their own individual bed, their own reading material, their own charging outlet for their mobile cellular devices if they so requested (though the network was closely monitored by their caretakers to ensure no leaks occurred), and a rudimentary bathroom area that was sectioned off from the main living space. It was like having a miniature hotel room with no windows. That was how one "guest" put it, and Zod found the description apt.

"They are not our equals," came an gravelly voice from behind him. Zod turned to see Jax-Ur, his regimen's physician, enter his office.

"You cannot blame me for wanting to make them comfortable, Ur."

"No, Zod, and I would not dream of accusing you of favoring them, but your treatment of our lab rats does concern me. If the species is to survive, we must proceed with our experiments. Trial and error is how science advances, not coddling."

"Are they sentient, Jax-Ur?"

"General?"

"Are they sentient? Do they breathe, do they think, do they form even the basest of vocabularies, do they relieve themselves, do they feel pain, and cry out when they suffer? Do they lack any of those things? No? Then they are sentient. But you are correct: they are not our equals. They are inferior, like the damned Science Council, and they will be repurposed accordingly."

"And when it comes time to dispose of them?"

"Make it look… like one of those mass suicides that populated the tail end of the previous century. It will cause enough of a media sensation that no one will think to look for the source. A little dramatic, come to think of it, try to find a different avenue. In any case, you must ensure there are no loose ends that can be traced back to us. Is that clear, Ur?"

The scientist clicked his heels together and straightened.

"Sir!"

"Don't do that, it makes me uncomfortable."

Jax-Ur nodded in reply and left the general alone. Zod returned to gazing out at the masses. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of women had come to this place hoping to find "the nice aliens" and to help them. Their most impressive PR campaign had paid off, as even several men had turned up in the hopes of aiding the "weary travelers of a dying species". That was the problem with the youth of today, far too eager to aid those who may desire to do them harm. This, however barbaric in the eyes of those like Kal-El, was a fundamental necessity for the survival of the Kryptonian people. A concept that Kal-El could not grasp, but one his cousin could. A pity the drug wore off; he would have liked to get to know Kara Zor-El more intimately. "I think it is time I pay my newest guest a visit!"

Making his way down to the lowest level of the facility, Dru-Zod came upon his prize: a Kryptonian funeral casket. Touching it in the right place activated a sort of window, so that the loved ones of the occupant might see the face of the deceased for one final moment before they were sent off to bask in the light of Rao.

"Hello, there," he whispered to the corpse. "Let's see if we cannot wake you up."

Walking over to the old artifact at the opposite end of the room, he gazed proudly upon the machine. It was a regeneration matrix and the device could be used to resurrect a Kryptonian from death. Something that he would need for the future, as the occupant of the casket could be manipulated into becoming the perfect tool in a potential war with the Earth's military, and especially with the DEO now that all the Kryptonite had been taken by Kal-El at his request. Prior to adjourning for the evening, he crossed back over to the casket and kissed it.

"Have a pleasant evening, Astra."


	5. Revelations

The last thing Astra remembered was Kara crying over her, begging her to divulge the details of Myriad.

Then everything went black.

Then it was bright again. A bright red light engulfed her. It had to be Rao's Light, it just had to be! While the soldier had never been one for religion, she had never felt a peace like this before; it was a bliss that surpassed anything else in existence. Astra decided she could stay like this forever if she willed it. But as soon as the peace enveloped her it was gone again.

The place in which she awoke was dark and cold, not what she pictured at all. She expected light, not shadows and isolation. If Kryptonians had a concept of what the humans called hell, this would be it. But then that darkness was permeated by light again. Oh, what a blessed relief. And there were people walking to meet her. It was here that Astra realized she was sitting up. In her fog, she hadn't realized what she was doing with her own body. But then she recognized the familiar voice of Jax-Ur, a criminal she helped put in the Phantom Zone in 1974. But how could he be here? Was he dead, too?

Reaching out her hand in confusion, as though she were blind, Astra's breath audibly hitched when she made physical contact with the scientist. Physical being the operative word in this scenario; the sensation was the catalyst for her next revelation: she was alive again! The casket she believed herself to be in was not a casket at all, but a Regeneration Matrix. Thinking of inquiring about her niece, she clambered out of the matrix and almost fell to the floor. Her legs were weak from disuse, she surmised, and she would need some time for her body to catch up to her mind. Her focus was still blurry, everything was far away, until her senses honed in on a voice she never expected to hear under any circumstances for the rest of her days.

"Took you long enough, traitor," Zod sneered as he entered the room not long after his underlings. "Hello, Astra. It has been a long time. Good to see that you have not changed. Or perhaps you have, it is difficult to discern here on Earth when personalities shift. Humans are so fearful, fragile, they hide behind pathetic facades. Not us, though. The humans-"

"Sir," Jax-Ur interrupted his superior's musings. "She would be of better use to us out of this room, if I may."

Zod smirked and nodded, departing wordlessly as Jax-Ur helped steady Astra. "There you are. Do not think of escape, usurper. This compound is secure enough to hold our kind."

She had to figure out where she was and how to escape, to return to Kara. Still too weak to resist, but exaggerating her weakness for the sake of gathering information, Astra allowed the seedy little man lead her wherever he was leading her. She noticed cubicles and doctors shuffling in and out of the small spaces. Occasionally her heightened senses picked up on weak sounds, moans and whimpers, coming from the 16'-by-16' boxes. Whatever they were working on was alive and had extremely cramped living conditions. Her brain was still too addled for her to muster up the energy to ask Jax-Ur but she resolved to investigate the matter further once she was fully functioning again. A few moments later, her head was clearer, she noticed the little tour had stopped. Jax-Ur had led Astra to one of the cubicles, but this one seemed a bit larger. It was more like a tent one might see for extras holding on film sets. Astra hadn't seen much Earth entertainment, much less while it was being produced, but she vaguely recalled seeing white tents of this type on film sets while she searched high and low for Kara upon the initial crashing of Fort Rozz to Earth.

"This one was hand-picked by the general himself. She calls herself Dinah Laurel Lance, and she requested some company. I believe it would be beneficial for the both of you." Opening the curtain to the tent, the unimpressed Jax-Ur made a half-hearted gesture for her to go inside and left the two women alone. Although unfamiliar with human slang, Astra approximated the look on his face to "being five-hundred-percent done with everything".

Taking the only seat by the human's bedside, Astra smiled at Laurel. "Hello. I am Astra." Laurel stiffened a bit, recognizing Astra's style of dress as Kryptonian. Was she about to be poked and prodded for the millionth time today? Instead, Astra gave a small chuckle. "I am not here to examine you, Miss Lance. I was told you desire companionship." Laurel nodded. "Would you be willing to share with me how you managed to end up here? What is this place?" On the way here, the soldier vaguely recognized her overall surroundings as some form of Kryptonian vessel, but she decided such verification would best come from someone who resided inside the environment.

Laurel exhaled slowly. "It's, um, it's… I don't know. But people in suits like yours bring us here if we fill out a form."

"A form?"

"Several forms actually. One is an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement for a test. We were brought here under the pretense of getting tested for genetic abnormalities of some sort. The scientists here are worried that since a Kryptonian virus was released on National City, almost a year ago, some of the population may be effected. Medusa, I think it was called."

"Miss Lance, Medusa is harmless to humans."

"I figured that out after we came here. A man visited me shortly after my arrival. He was tall, black hair, piercing and observant eyes that bore into my very soul, but he was kind. Charming. He told me that he was Kryptonian, and that he was like Superman and Supergirl. He said that his race is dying, that they needed to continue it." Laurel inhaled a shaky breath at that assertion.

"But Kryptonian DNA is incompatible with yours," Astra was confused.

"Not by the time they came for me. "I figured, hey, if these people are like Superman and Supergirl then they must be refugees in need of help. We're having a refugee crisis of our own here on Earth, so needless to say I was sympathetic to their plight as they described it to me. The scientist, the man who came to me calls him Jax-Ur, prepped me for in-vitro fertilization and here we are." She patted her belly, and for the first time Astra noticed an obvious roundness to her abdomen, recognizable as the trademark swell of pregnancy. It wasn't difficult for the Kryptonian to put two and two together.

"This is a breeding program?"

"We might as well be broodmares here," Laurel confirmed and rolled over, facing away from Astra. "The child I'm carrying is half-Kryptonian, and it appears that hybrids develop at an accelerated rate. I'm fifteen weeks right now and it should be full-term in a few weeks. Seven, I think. The explanation is really heady and I don't have the energy for it, but it's something-something genetic manipulation." The lawyer rolled back over, "I'm a lawyer, Astra, I shouldn't have been this naïve. Remind me not to trust aliens anymore once I get out of here, present company excluded."

The women shared a humorless laugh.

"Hey," Laurel looked at Astra for the first time, "do you have a daughter? There was someone here who looked like you."

"Kara?" Astra's interest was piqued. So she was here, hmm? "My niece, yes. Is she still here?"

"She escaped about a month ago. There was an earlier phase to this program, the general told me. I think his name was Zod. He said that there was a phase of the program concerned with continuing the pure blood existence of the Kryptonian race before their scientists branched out to human trials. Although Kara arrived here after that initial phase ended, they decided to impregnate her with a genetically pure Kryptonian offspring. They treated her more like a lab rat than a person. Awful."

 _How could they do this?_ Astra could feel so much anger boiling, threatening to overflow, and she hoped she wouldn't lash out at this human. _Don't shoot the messenger_ was the human phrase. Taking a few deep breaths, Astra instead rested a calming hand on Laurel's shoulder.

"I will help you get out of here. All of you."

Laurel smirked, a hopelessness in her eyes. Although Astra had only known the woman for maybe ten minutes, she recognized that the feeling was largely alien to Laurel. Such a depression did not belong there. This human reminded her so much of her niece. Astra bent and kissed Laurel's forehead, squeezing her hand. "I will help," she vowed.

&&&&^^^^^^%%%%%%$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$##########################

Lena didn't know much about prenatal care, but she surmised ten-week appointments were the norm for heartbeats and the like. Alex had mentioned something about "making sure the pregnancy is uterine", which to Lena sounded like a good idea even though she had no clue what such things meant. All Lena knew was that Kara was uneasy, that she was still conflicted. Truth be told, both of them were. Driving down to the DEO's medical station was challenging enough for Lena; she was terrified for Kara's wellbeing in the wake of what was, simply put, medical rape. Her legal advisor, Laurel Lance, had been missing for months. The last time she saw Laurel was at the end of May. Lena wasn't the praying type, but she was spiritual, and so she hoped against hope that Laurel had avoided the fate given to Kara. The pair still hadn't discussed the kiss, but such a conversation was hardly a blip on her radar that week.

As Lena's car pulled up the driveway and the CEO found a parking spot close to the door, Kara felt her temperature decrease for a split second. A chill ran down her spine. Nothing to do with the reason behind her visit, not at all, but she just hated hospitals in general. Hospitals were where the sick and the dying went; Kara Danvers/Zor-El was neither of those things and she had no intention to be. Even though this was more of a women's center than a general hospital, her brain still went off. She didn't know why she was anxious. Well, she did but on the whole she had come to accept her current situation. Besides, Lena would be there with her. Alex would be there, too, at Kara's request (not that she even needed to ask in the first place, Alex had practically moved into the cabin as a show of support). Upon signing in, Kara and Lena sat and waited for Alex to arrive. That waiting drove Kara up the wall! She wanted to wait for her sister, unsure she could do this without her, but she also wanted the appointment to be over and done with. Maggie gently told Kara that she had no obligation to carry to term, that she didn't choose this and it was unethical for someone to force her to reproduce, and while Kara agreed with all of the detective's points she also felt a certain amount of responsibility. When the automatic doors opened, Kara leapt to her feet. "Alex?"

Thank Rao, it was her! Maggie was there, too, and the detective sat beside Lena as Alex took her place beside Kara.  
"You sure you're okay," Alex squeezed her sister's hand. Kara didn't verbally reply and got up, walking tall to the room where the procedure itself would take place. She still couldn't hear that word and not cringe, but it was the closest English approximation she could come up with in that moment. The reporter knew this was a routine checkup, to make sure the pregnancy was viable and the heartbeat was there, but was she ready? When Krypton went boom, she was just discovering boys. Now she was knocked up as the result of a nefarious sequence of events. As she hopped up on the table and stared at the ultrasound device, she pulled up her shirt as the tech rubbed the gel on her stomach. While it was her understanding that some- or most, she wasn't sure- human women began showing at this point, Kara was a) Kryptonian, and, b) 5'8". Kryptonian pregnancies didn't start showing until around seven-and-a-half months; the fetus wouldn't start moving at an externally perceptible level until close to eight. Kara expected to feel little flutters before that, though. The tech's voice snapped her out of her headspace.

"The heartbeat is there, Kara," she smiled warmly. "It's strong. Actually," she moved the wand a little up and to the left, " _they're_ very strong."

"They?" The question was voiced with varying amounts of shock from the four assembled women. Kara responded by closing her eyes and focusing. Sure enough, there it was!

 _Duh-duh duh-duh, duh-duh duh-duh…_

Three heartbeats resounded in her body, one of them obviously hers.

"You're having twins," the tech beamed. "Congratulations!" She was clearly ignorant as to the circumstances that led to the situation, but Kara smiled her warm gooey cinnamon roll smile anyway. "Thank you!" Getting up and cleaning the goo off her midsection, Kara put her shirt down as the tech smiled at the four and departed.

Kara sat in silence for a moment before exclaiming a Kryptonian word that could be roughly translated either as _fuck_ or _shit_. Alex gave her sister a concerned look, swearing wasn't her norm. "Kara?"

The hero looked up in a bid to stop herself from crying. "I heard them, Alex. I heard them! They're there. They're real. Golly."

Lena still hadn't gotten to hearing Kara say things like 'Golly'. "What, Kara?"

"I'm gonna be _huge_ ," she laughed.

"I'll carry you everywhere," Lena practically stampeded over the word 'huge' and Kara blushed.

"Awww," Alex cooed. Maggie rolled her eyes.

"You gonna be okay if Maggie and I go home? She has work in the morning," Alex asked a little shyly.

"Come on, Alex," Maggie chuckled and pulled Alex outside to give Kara and Lena some privacy. As the couple walked out of the building and to their car, Kara picked up on their conversation.

Alex: Those two are so sweet!

Maggie: Yeah. So sweet I think they gave me cavities in all of my teeth. Or diabetes. Or both.

That elicited a snorting laugh from Alex. Whatever Alex said next was a little muffled, but Maggie's reply was clear as day.

Maggie: I knew Luthor was god-tier gay the minute I met her. I think she and Kara are good together. They compliment each other well.

Kara returned her attention to Lena, a huge grin on her face and a blush to her cheeks.

"What?" Lena was clearly amused by Kara's expression and overall change of demeanor. This was the Kara she knew.

"Nothing," Kara leaned in and gave Lena a little peck on the lips. "Nothing at all."

"I guess it's time we talk about-"

Before she could finish that sentence, Kara grabbed Lena's head and kissed her deeply. There was a passion and yearning to the kiss that Kara had never experienced before. Maybe it was hormones, but she was pretty sure it was because of Lena. Solely because of Lena. When the kiss broke, to say Lena was shocked was an understatement. Not in a bad way, but still shocked. She made a little sound and beamed at Kara before going back in and practically shoving her tongue down Kara's throat.

Guess they didn't need to have _that_ conversation after all.

)((((**&^^^&&&&$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$###########################

"I wanna have them in the cabin," Kara perked up when they got home. Lena shot her a look. While the Luthor respected people's opinions enough to not question their judgment on such things, said respect of course didn't exclude thinking Kara was absolutely spectacularly insane for suggesting it. She'd heard such horror stories surrounding home birth. Hell, she had heard lots of horror stories surrounding childbirth in general. Just as she was about to start a conversation, Kara looked at her with those puppy dog eyes and she was a goner.

"If that's what you really want," Lena looked over to the passenger seat and smiled at Kara, her… girl? Was that what they were now? Girlfriends? Too soon to tell? Lena didn't want to overestimate the whole thing and get hurt, but this was Kara. Honest, sweet, super-duper-intelligent Kara. Lena knew she could expect nothing but openness and communication from Kara, so she decided to put the thought out of her mind.

"On Krypton, before the birthing matrices replaced placental viviparity wholesale, every newborn was welcomed at home with the immediate family and a midwife present. My mother and aunt were taught all about reproduction in their classes starting at the age of 13, because of the whole mandatory thing, but by the time I reached that age there was, you know, an impending apocalypse. Didn't rank high on the priority list. Now that I know I'm having twins, I know how long I'm gonna be pregnant. I should give birth to them closer to ninety weeks now, instead of eighty. I know that with humans, multiples have to be born prior to 40 weeks, but thanks to our ancestors' genetic manipulations we carry multiples longer than singletons so they can be at their biological peak at delivery. Does that make sense?"

Lena listened in on Kara's explanation. She'd never heard the other speak like this, it was unexpected and a little funny. She knew Kara was supposed to the youngest member to be inducted onto the Science Council before the big boom but hearing it from Kara's mouth just elevated the already substantially high regard the CEO had for the reporter/superhero.

"We can talk more when we get inside," Lena kissed Kara's cheek and got out of the car, holding the door open for Kara as they exited.

In the forest surrounding the cabin, Jax-Ur watched as the new couple entered their new home. He noticed the paranoia in Lena's eyes as she locked the door behind her and retired to the bowels of the abode.

"Soon," he sneered before retreating into the thickness of the trees.


	6. Escape

Laurel awoke to Jax-Ur standing over her. "What the hell do you want?" The lawyer groaned. The Kryptonian scientist leaned over her, sniffing her like a dog. "I think it may be time for-"

Without restraint, Laurel reached under her pillow and stabbed Jax-Ur in the jugular with a Kryptonite knife. Just as she planned. Jax-Ur didn't get to finish that sentence, or any sentence thereafter for that matter. Speaking is kind of difficult with a Kryptonite knife jammed into your throat. He collapsed to the floor, wide-eyed, and Laurel sort of hated herself for enjoying watching the light go out in those dark brown orbs.

Where did she get this knife, I am sure you're wondering. Laurel looked up as the curtain to her tent was being pulled back, ready to take the knife from Jax-Ur's lifeless body and go on the offensive. Instead, General Zod ducked so as to enter the tent and smiled at her. Admired her handiwork.

"Good on you," he smiled.

Still, Laurel had her suspicions. "Why are you helping me?" She squared her jaw, trying to maintain some level of dignity. The alien chuckled. Laurel thought it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"Ur was a fanatic. His whole family was, in point of fact. Others are better tasked for the maintenance of the hybrids. Others who are less sadistic, who look at you as actual sentient beings and not lab rats. Tell you what, I'm going to let you leave."

Laurel would've scoffed and rolled her eyes if this man didn't absolutely terrify her. Instead, she sat back down n her bed in defiance. The general sat beside her and rested a hand on her swollen belly.

"I mean it. And if you so choose to return, bear our son in a more comforting environment- my suite perhaps- then I shall welcome you back with open arms."

Laurel continued to stare him down. "What's the catch?"

"No catch." He raised the hand from her belly to her face, caressing it as he would a lover. "My wife is infertile. You are far superior." He leaned in.

So did she.

His lips parted in anticipation of a kiss.

She spat in his face and jumped up, ripping the knife from Jax-Ur and wiping it clean on the tent curtain before rushing out the door. Zod grinned and exited.

She had to get away, she had to. Taking the stairs two at a time, she made it to the third level before looking back. Zod wasn't following her. He wasn't anywhere. Wait! He was standing outside the tent, beaming up at her like a proud suitor. Without sparing a second thought, she took the stairs to the fourth floor, then the fifth, then the sixth and finally the seventh.

Why did no one pursue her? Was this psycho really testing her, seeing if she'll return of her own volition before even leaving the facility? No! No time for thinking. She had to get out, to see the sun again.

Her eyes darted frantically to and fro. Was that an elevator nestled in the corner? Why, yes! Yes it was! She punched the button, hopped inside, and smashed the "surface exit" button. She almost broke it, or at least was pretty sure she did.

Laurel certainly did not anticipate the sight before her when she reached the surface exit. Instead of the women's health clinic that had been the cover when she arrived, she stepped out into a forest. Was this the back entrance? She knew the facility where she and dozens of other women were being held was vast, but she had no idea how vast.

It was dark out. What the hell day was it? What time was it? What month? Time lost all meaning down there in that pit. Looking back, she saw a mountain face. Son of a bitch! Zod had the facility built into a mountain. But there were no mountains anywhere near where she entered this nightmare.

 _THIS IS A SECONDARY FACILITY!_

How many of these horrid "baby factories" did this war criminal and his entourage have set up?

She couldn't stand to think about the atrocities any longer. She had to leave, had to get somewhere safe.

Laurel hiked for what seemed like miles. It probably was. Walking alongside the road in the dark wasn't her style, but it was her lot. When a transfer truck pulled up, seeing the pretty girl in the white clothes, the driver smiled at her and put the vehicle in park.

"National City."

"You a'ight, lady?"

"Yeah," an obvious lie. They both knew it. She stuck the knife she hadn't realized on which she had developed a vice grip down her cleavage and hopped in. Although she got a look or two from the driver, mostly polite glances at her belly, and he tried to drum up a conversation, the lawyer was exhausted and the adrenaline was beginning to wear off. The ride passed in silence and the driver dropped her off at the nearest coffee shop at her request.

Once inside, Laurel asked if there was a phone and she was promptly directed to one. Afterward, she promised herself, she would get a good look in the mirror. She felt like hammered shit and she surmised that she looked it. Laurel dialed the first number that came to mind, and the reply was immediate:

" _ **Laurel?"**_ came Lena's high-pitched, worried voice.

"Hey. I'm safe. For now."

"I'll come and pick you up. Where are you?!"

"Noonan's."

"I'll be right there."

And she was. Lena was prompt, as her usual. The CEO ushered Laurel into her car and soon enough the pair had arrived at the cabin. Kara looked out the window, earning a prompt 'stay away from the window' gesture from Lena.

Leading Laurel inside, Lena sat down with her on the couch.

"Sweetheart, where were you?"

Kara caught Laurel's gaze for a moment. A look of solidarity. "With- with Kara."

By now the lawyer, who had previously maintained a steely façade, was shaking like a leaf.

"It… he…" she gently touched her belly before recoiling as if the action caused her physical pain. "Zod."

Kara acted immediately, without a pause or beat. She knew. Lena of course had an understanding, but the twisted sense of kinship Kara and Laurel now shared by virtue of this shared violation almost made her feel less than. No, Lena, don't make this about you.

"I'm gonna give you two a minute," she moved to get up before Laurel's hand shot out and grasped her forearm.

"Stay. Please."

Lena nodded and joined in on the hug. She let Laurel sob, and soon Kara was crying too.

"Shhhh," she soothed the others. "You're okay. You're safe now. You're safe. Nothing is going to hurt you anymore."

She had to tell Alex. The DEO could help. First thing in the morning, she was going to march over there and inform them of the scenario. This abomination had to be stopped.


	7. Mobilization

**A/N: So I know canonically Lena is only 24, but prior to "Luthors" I headcanoned that she was in her early 30s and the age is staying true for this. A year or two older than Laurel. For the sake of the fic, Lena is 33.**

 _It had been six months and nothing. 24 weeks. An entire half-a-year and she had nothing to show for it but wasted cash. But it wasn't really wasted, was it? No. It was impossible to waste money on an endeavor like this. She had to do this. Laurel didn't understand. Was something wrong with her? She wanted this. She had always had "mom" somewhere in her future when she wrote everything in her "when I grow up" notebook. Winn was supportive, she loved him for that. Lena was, too, of course. Oh, god, Lena. The ex she thought she would never see again. After how they ended things, Laurel was surprised when Lena took her on as LuthorCorp's part-time legal counsel in 2010. Against Lex's wishes. Laurel didn't like Lex, though like Lena she thought he could be saved. Then he couldn't be. It was over just like that. Lena worked out of LuthorCorp's Metropolis office for two years before she moved to Starling; Laurel had followed. It was soon after the second move, to Midway City, that their relationship fell apart. Laurel had stayed in Starling. They had a grand total of one date in the three months that followed, and it was over Skype. It ended with the classic "I think we need to take a break" line. From Lena. Lena, who had begun the relationship back in '05 in the first place! Laurel would be lying if she said it didn't sting. It was her longest uninterrupted romance since she had a middle school thing with Oliver Queen when his family briefly lived in Metropolis. She hadn't seen or heard from him in almost 20 years and she hoped he was doing well. When she and Lena first started dating her sophomore year (Lena's senior year), the sky and introverted Laurel fully expected her open and unapologetic bisexuality to be greeted with hostility by she whom everyone on campus had dubbed "the God-tier Gay". Where Laurel was soft, Lena projected the image of the tough girl. When Laurel brought Lena home for Thanksgiving her junior year, her father Quentin and her mother Dinah had welcomed Lena with open arms. All they cared about was their only daughter's happiness. That night, Lena confessed she wished her own coming out had been so warmly received by her stepparents. Then all that ended in 2008 and Laurel drowned her sorrows in Tinder, where she met Winn. Winslow Schott, Jr. He was kind and nerdy, a bit of a hopeless romantic sure but Laurel found it endearing. She herself was the definition of hopeless romantic. A year in and they had moved in, another year and they were engaged. In November 2011 they decided to have kids and immediately got started. Who cares if they were married? Well, aside from Laurel's very Catholic/Methodist parents. A new fertility clinic had opened up in Starling so the couple moved to Starling. One run by a balding, kinda creepy fellow who went by "Jax" instead of "Jackson". Strange dude. Maybe that would be the answer?_

 _By June, she and Winn got into a fight over it. By August, Laurel was moving back to Metropolis, to fully commit to being LuthorCorp's legal advisor. This time Laurel ended things. She felt like she was letting Winn down, holding him back. She told him to let her go and find someone that could give him everything he wanted. This issue she had made her feel inferior, not that her self-esteem was all that great to begin with._

Laurel longed for simpler times. She was fiddling with the coffee pot the next morning when she heard Kara come down the stairs.

"Morning," she greeted.

"Morning," was the yawned reply.

"Hey, Kara, Lena told me she wanted me to let you know that she's out. Business stuff. She won't be back until later."

"Okay," Kara was still out-of-it and not really paying attention to much of anything for the time being. As Kara was plopping down onto the couch and shifting until she was comfortable, Laurel's curiosity was piqued when she caught the slip of Kara's patch. This one was located just above her tailbone, on the small of her back.

"Kara?"

"Huh?"

"What's that on your back?"

"Oh, this old thing?" Kara got up, tossed off her shirt (who gives a shit, it's her house?) and turned around so Laurel could see. It was pulsing dimly, a dark red. "It's a red solar patch. It's designed to keep my body just human enough so my body doesn't reject the fetus."

"And you're choosing to keep it?"

"It's complicated. Part of me knows that it's one of the last chances for at least partial perpetuation of my race. The other part of me is slowly remembering the circumstances through which this happened and I'm thinking of giving it up once it comes out. But then… a half-Kryptonian baby? The metabolism alone would drive anyone crazy."

"So what's your game plan?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I've accepted the situation, but I don't know if Lena has. She's been weirdly overprotective lately. Of me."

"She does that when she's head over heels for someone." Laurel's eyes twinkled in remembrance.

Kara caught onto her tone. "You two…?"  
"A long time ago. She was the first girl I ever dated. Then I went with this guy Winn for a bit and-"

"Wait, Winn? Winn Schott?"

"Yeah! You know him!"

Kara started cackling. "Oh my Ra- uh, gosh. You were Waterloo."

"Yep." Laurel seemed a bit embarrassed. "I was Waterloo."

Still beaming like the physical embodiment of sunshine, Kara closed the space between them and wrapped Laurel in a warm embrace.

"Well, I guess that explains why the Kryptonite knife didn't hurt you, the patch" Laurel apologized. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. It might come in handy," Kara downplayed. "Come on, let's get some breakfast? Are there any leftover potstickers?"

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Finding the DEO's city-based station again was easy. She marched right in and found Director Henshaw. Err, J'onn J'onzz. She would have to get rid of her alien mistrust sooner rather than later. And it wasn't that she mistrusted aliens in the first place, it was more a healthy concern for the wellbeing for National City in the wake of Myriad.

"J'onn! Hi, Lena Luthor," the CEO reintroduced herself.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking right now," she joked.

The Martian was summarily not amused by the joke.

"Okay, then" Lena wrung her hands. "Um. Is Alex here?"

"Agent Danvers!"

Alex came running. Lena pulled the two over to a safe, secluded area and started in.

"Laurel is back!"

"That's great," Alex smiled.

"She has information for us on Zod's base of operations. Their lead scientists, Jax-Ur, was the head of the genetic component of the project. Laurel killed him, but she knows the Kryptonians will find someone else to take Jax-Ur's place."

"I had a run-in with Jax-Ur once," J'onn muttered. "Good riddance."

"Let's go, then!" Alex almost yelled.

"Agent Danvers, I understand your emotional stake in this. We all love Kara and we all want this bastard put on ice. What he's doing is monstrous," J'onn admitted, "but we can't go in unprepared. We should get the NCPD on this, see if there have been any more missing persons since we Kara came back to us."

"The NCPD couldn't find Kara," Alex reminded him. "And anyone who knew anything about the Kryptonians and their science experiment were assassinated."

"Assassinated?" Lena inquired. "By whom?"

"A merc-for-hire. His name is Slade Wilson. At least we think he's responsible. Maggie told me one of her contacts saw a man who fit his description earlier this week."

"Let's get to it, then." J'onn had that determined look Alex knew all too well.

Lena glanced at her watch. It was almost noon. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get back. Personal matters."

"Oh, tell Kara and Laurel I say hi," Alex smiled.

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As Kara and Laurel sat down eating their leftover potsticker breakfast (well, Kara ate them and Laurel just watched in awe as Kara just shoveled them into her mouth), the two were left blissfully unaware that someone was watching them. A bit closer than their previous peeping tom, in both emotional and physical closeness. Astra decided it was time. She flew to the front door and knocked. Kara opened and her mouth dropped open.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, little one."

Kara could hardly form words. What was going on?

"Aunt Astra?"

Then came the waterworks. Astra scooped Kara into a warm, tight embrace. "Hello, Kara."

In the trees, another visitor lurked. One who did not dare show his face. As soon as he got a glimpse of Kara and Laurel, he disappeared back into the forest. Zod grinned the whole way back to the facility. His gambit in letting Jax-Ur die and letting Laurel go had paid off. He'd found his prizes and he would not lose them again.


	8. Juxtaposition

At Alex's insistence, Kara scheduled a 13-week ultrasound as soon as she left her 12-week appointment. Laurel's pregnancy had, as she predicted, progressed rapidly. In response Lena nudged Alex into pulling some strings so the mothers would have the same OB, as well as paying to insure that Kara's sonogram technician remained on for the entire two years. Of course, having worked for the DEO on retainer for a while now, the technician had suspected Kara's identity. Such preemptive measures taken by Miss Luthor only confirmed that suspicion. A tired and nearly-due Laurel kept complaining about how she was "gonna explode before this kid comes out." Though Lena would never say it, she thought Laurel certainly looked like she was going to do just that.

At Kara's 13-week appointment, Lena took Alex aside.

"Lena? Is something wrong?"

"No," the older brunette smiled. "Not at all. You know how Kara wants to have the babies in the cabin?"

"Yeah? And you know I'm not 100% onboard with that idea."

"Right. When you were in med school did you ever cover childbirth?"

Alex thought about this for a moment. "Not much. I dropped out to make sure Kara was okay so I didn't get very far into the curriculum. Why do you ask?"

"Well, obviously you're going to be at the birth but... could you maybe be her midwife?"

Alex listened but wasn't entirely sure how to answer her sister's girlfriend. "Why me?" She stole a glance to the Kryptonian, who was watching the screen excitedly.

"Well, it looks like..." the tech moved the wand up and over and around. "It looks like a boy and a girl!"

"Lena!" Kara called. "Did you hear?"

Lena brightened immediately as she and Alex rushed back over to the screen.

"See?" Kara pointed to the screen. "There they are!"

"According to the tests, we've established Kara's date of conception as September 3, 2017." The tech told them. "She should be due sometime late spring/midsummer 2019."

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Kara couldn't recall a time when she last felt so incontestably happy. Waking up with Lena snuggled against/into her back, the CEO's warm cheek pressed between Kara's shoulder blades, and an arm snaked around Kara's waist. Such was the beginning of each morning in this quaint little cabin that Lena owned and into which Kara and Laurel had so graciously been given asylum. But they both knew this was more than just asylum for Kara. While a label had yet to be applied to the relationship, it had clearly passed the point of no return in terms of obvious romantic attraction being presented by both involved parties. Even after over a dozen years on Earth, human mating rituals remained a subject of endless intrigue in the Kryptonian's mind. Sitting up, Kara's superhearing picked up on something from downstairs although she was still too groggy to pinpoint exactly from what or who or where the sound originated or even what precisely the sound was. Getting up slowly, she couldn't help but notice how angelic Lena looked. Even with her bed head and her mouth hanging open as she breathed, the pale-skinned brunette was what Kara called gorgeous. "El Mayarah," Kara whispered the phrase that had become their 'always' or their 'I love you'. Aside from the symbolic aspect, the phrase's English translation of 'stronger together' was a daily reminder of Lena's commitment to the relationship (regardless of it being platonic or romantic) and the knowledge of her being Kara's rock through thick and thin was information that never failed to make Kara smile. Returning her attention to the noise downstairs, the blonde crept down the staircase to find a familiar face conversing animatedly with Laurel.

" _James_!" Kara squealed, giving the photographer a running hug. James caught her and lifted her off the ground.

"Kara, hey," he grinned. "How are you? Alex and Winn told me that you had been abducted? Laurel filled me in on a lot of it. Are you okay? Do we know where this guy is?"

"Yeah, it's a long story."

"I have time. Faking one's death to defeat the city's last threat does have the upside of giving one a lot of down time, you know."

Laurel chuckled briefly before putting a hand over her mouth to stifle the response she felt to be somewhat inappropriate despite James' joking and light tone. Kara led James over to the couch, whereupon she proceeded to fill him in on the goings on that led to her and Laurel's current situation. Nodding sympathetically at appropriate intervals, James took both of Kara's hands in his and hugged her tightly at the conclusion of her tale.

Laurel stood by, leaning on the counter, and couldn't help but reminisce of her times with Lena and Winn. Though reminiscing about the former wasn't something she was entirely comfortable with given that her first ex was now with Kara, and dwelling only made it hurt, thinking back on her relationship with Winn made her smile. Although the young lawyer knew Kara and James were no longer together (were they ever really?), the sight of the two close friends together made Laurel inexorably jubilant. Sighing, she took a look outside the glass sliding door and thought back to her first meeting with Winn.

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 _January 2009_

 _Blind dates were the polar opposite of what Dinah Laurel Lance envisioned herself ever doing for any reason ever. Why had she let Joanna talk her into downloading one of those unbelievably stupid dating app things? Tinder? Seriously? Ugghhhhh! Noooo! She was supposed to be at home, crying into cereal while watching Days of our Lives or this week's episode of the 14_ _th_ _season of Xena: Warrior Princess. Sitting alone at a table in a bar and grill at 7:30 on a Friday night, Laurel's mind raced. What if this person knew about her past with a Luthor? After Lex's anti-alien terrorism had made headline news for three straight weeks, Laurel was distressed when she hadn't heard from Lena. Granted, they had only just broken off a multi-year romantic relationship so some radio silence was to be expected while they both healed. Laurel respected that. However, that didn't mean Laurel had to like it. No, sirree bob! She was a nurturer, dammit! Let her nurture!_

 _Oh. There he was. Just sitting across from her while she zoned out due to her own feelings. One couldn't deny that he was handsome. Looked like someone who might be on Broadway. And here she was just staring blankly ahead like a moron._

" _Oh!" She giggled nervously. "Hi."_

" _Hi." His chuckle was just as nervous, just as dorky. He mentioned something about dorkiness on his profile. "Winn. But you kinda knew that already. BUT never impolite to formally introduce oneself, right?" That nervous smile again, and part of Laurel's earlier anxieties melted. If nothing else came of tonight, or of any dates that may or may not follow, she could at least be friends with the guy._

" _Laurel," she reached over the table and shook his hand. He blushed. So did she._

" _So, tell me more about you," they blurted simultaneously._

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Having grown tired of looking out the glass door, Laurel smiled and looked back at James and Kara's animated conversation. He seemed concerned, how sweet of him. She hated eavesdropping but this was a special circumstance. This was something that resulted in major changes to both Laurel and Kara's lives, as well as the lives of however many countless other men and women Zod and the other Kryptonian war criminals had coerced to take part in their twisted endeavor to save their species. While Laurel certainly sympathized with the Kryptonians and their desire for continuation of their race, the avenues through which Zod had been pursuing this end were immoral and infringed not only on the lives of the humans that had been taken but also the whole scenario was a massive violation of reproductive rights. What would she do with this child? This thing inside of her that shouldn't even exist? Sounds harsh, yes, but it is the truth. Dinah Laurel Lance would not have consented to carrying the child if she knew the truth: that she would be detained, monitored, experimented on like some rat in a lab by Jax-Ur and his scientist cronies. In the end, though, she did realize that she was the one who volunteered for this in the first place. She wanted to help these people, and she naively believed that since Superman and Supergirl were Kryptonian then these new Kryptonians must also be benevolent. Jax-Ur manipulated her genetic code to be more compatible with that of the Kryptonians. So the child inside her cold survive to term. It's unexpectedly quick term. She had thought she'd been going into labor earlier this morning, which accounted for why she had been up so early when Kara heard her, but the contractions tapered off soon thereafter. She thought it best not to worry anyone. This child would come when it was ready and not before. She would decide what to do with the child once it was born. She wouldn't kill it, heavens no. She certainly was not that bitter about what had happened. The child didn't ask to be created, forcibly or otherwise. She was angry, and she knew that anger was justified, but she wasn't going to kill a newborn. What kind of monster would that make her? On the flip side of such the choice laid before her, what if it had superhuman abilities like its father? What couple would be capable of raising a special infant of that caliber? If she did decide to keep it, and it looked like Zod, would she be able to raise it and not be reminded of the breeding stock existence the Kryptonians had set up for the humans in their twisted care, every single day? It was days like today that she envied Kara Zor-El. Her choice seemed so crystalline clear to her. What if she ran into Winn one day? How would she explain it? How could she? They had tried for so long.

An inquiry Kara posed to James jolted her back to the present. The conversation had been going on for a good fifteen, perhaps twenty minutes by now.

"Where is my sister, James? Where is Alex? I haven't heard from her since last night. I haven't heard from Maggie or Mon-El either for that matter."

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 _ **THE NIGHT BEFORE**_

 _If there was one thing Maggie Sawyer hated more than the patriarchy and homophobic small towns, it was the woods. Fuck the woods. Fuck the woods and their little animals and their irritating thorns and their gross creepy-crawlies. Well, not the animals. Bestiality is illegal, after all. That would be a detrimental course of action, fucking the animals. Don't fuck the animals, whatever you do. Please don't fuck the animals, people! But fuck everything else, though not in the biblical sense. Do not even think to "know", in the biblical sense, the woods or anything else aforementioned, but metaphorically do exactly fuck them all. Maybe to hell with forests would be a better choice of words?_

 _It was times like these that Maggie remembered she needed Alex to stay out of her own head. Her head could be an exceedingly strange and dark place._

 _Anyway, Maggie hated the woods. She hated the thickness and the trudging through the growth, especially at night when she couldn't see anything. The mere fact that Alex suggested the woods made her skin crawl. When Alex informed her they would have to walk on foot to find wherever it was that Laurel crawled out of, at least past a certain point, Maggie briefly reconsidered her existence. Then again, it was Alex. 'I believe the human phrase is "whipped as fuck"', was how Lyra finally convinced her to go along with this little expedition._

" _Remind me why the DEO can't just find it or something," Maggie complained to absolutely no one in particular as she traipsed over flora and fauna, almost stumbling over a log if it were not for Mon-El. "Because," the Daxamite replied to her obviously rhetorical outcry, "this is the path that Laurel said she came from and this area is in the same vicinity as from where Kara emerged from the woods before Lena found her." Maggie just rolled her eyes and kept going._

" _The eye-rolling thing, is that a sign of acceptance?" Humph. Nearly a year on this planet and still clueless. Maggie honestly had no idea what Kara ever saw in the guy. Not to say she wasn't outwardly supportive of whatever made Kara happy, because that would mean happy Alex, and Maggie liked happy Alex. Said outward support did not, however, preclude her from voicing her anti-Mon opinions to Alex at the alien bar. All that mattered in the end, though, was that he for some inexplicable reason made Kara even momentarily happy despite being an enormous prick to everyone up until recently. For Maggie, Mon-El was someone who even on his good days she could only stand to be slightly civil toward; she was not ashamed though to admit that he was getting better in the whole treat-everyone-equally-and-actually-listen department. "Well I just think that-"_

" _Shh!" Alex cut Maggie off, putting a finger to both her and Mon-El's mouths._

 _A muffled "What?" came from the small detective's lips. Small. Yes, indeed, she was quite tiny. Maggie knew Alex found it adorable._

" _I think I see something," Alex whispered._

" _Looks like we are going to have to cut a little bit short the hiking adventures of the tol and the smol," Mon-El quipped._

 _Maggie's reaction to that phrase spilling from Mon-El's mouth was truly a sight to behold. "'The Tol and the Smol'? Have you been researching Tumblr and Urban Dictionary for human cultural information again?" The detective whispered to him._

" _No," Mon-El whispered back very unconvincingly._

" _Well, I am the Tol one obviously."_

" _No you're not." That one came from Alex._

 _All turning in the direction the DEO agent pointed, the trio soon crept over to what looked like an oddly angled fallen tree. But it wasn't a tree at all. Trees don't upon up like magical portals to other realms and shine a bright light that, when it dimmed, revealed an elevator._

" _Let's not go in the creepy elevator," Mon-El begged. His words fell on deaf ears. Never tell Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer not to do something, especially when it comes to protecting both their friends and family members as well as the continued safety of the human species from Kryptonian Hitler._

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Astra found Lena's spare room quaint and sufficient. Quaintly sufficient, if that made any sense. Despite only being vaguely conscious, Astra was cognizant of Kara getting up and leaving the bedroom she shared with Lena. Then she heard a different noise entirely. It sounded like someone crying. Getting up, Astra wrapped the robe Lena had lent her around herself and ventured into the other bedroom.

Sure enough, Lena was crying. Softly, in a controlled fashion, as if she were embarrassed to be crying at all. Though Astra did not know Lena, she could sense that the human was one who wore her heart on her sleeve… and that just made Lena's attempts at hiding her crying all the more confusing to Astra. Nevertheless, Astra's nurturing side, one she thought was long buried or destroyed by the horrors of her actions to preserve her world, took over and the soldier sat at the edge of the bed. Lena looked down the bed at her from the safety of the comforter and sheets when she felt a hand on her leg.

"You again. You're Kara's aunt, right?"

"Yes," Astra answered.

"Is this real?" Lena's voice was small, like a terrified child. "Is it?"

Astra picked up on Lena's subtext immediately. She crawled up the bed and lay down, facing Lena. The CEO had her face pressed into covers that was already pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were red, puffy. She had been doing this a while already. Somehow, without Kara noticing. Was this a habit of hers, crying in the morning?

"What is the matter?"

"This all feels too good to be true," Lena sniffled. "Like-l-like I'm g-gonna wake up and I'll be alone again. That this was… a dream…"

Astra pulled Lena into an embrace, her head resting atop Lena's. Almost on instinct, Lena buried herself into Astra's chest.

"Shh, _shh_ ," Astra soothed. How to go about consoling this Lena Luthor? Hmm… there it is! She recalled a conversation that Kara and Lena had one evening. A reminder as to always be committed or something or other. "Lena," she began, "there is a Kryptonian phrase that Kara holds very near and dear to her heart. The phrase is 'El Mayarah' and it is the words of the house of El, the meaning of their crest. In your tongue, it means 'Stronger Together'. I know you need Kara. Such a thing was so obvious to me that I would have been stupid not to pick up on it. She needs you, too. The two of you need each other. She is not going to leave you, and this is not a dream. It is reality. Now, come. Let us make you presentable.

Lena laughed but nonetheless got up.

By 10:30 that morning, Lena was dressed and ready to go for the day. When she got downstairs, she was smiling and happy again. Laurel, James, and Kara were all chattering away, feeling Laurel's son move.

"Hey, Kara! I was thinking maybe we could have a day-date today?" A day-date being what Lena had come to call it when she and Kara spent all day together doing mushy couple-y things on the town.

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Lena wasn't much for flying and Kara knew this. In fact, the youngest Luthor hated it. However, since the hard-won victory over Cadmus, Lena had come to enjoy it. Of course, that was only after Lena had determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kara was in fact Supergirl. She'd had her suspicions ever since she asked Kara to try out the alien detection device. She'd known of Kara's being extraterrestrial since then but kept such knowledge to herself. She wanted to wait until Kara was ready to come clean on her own. She figured Kara was maybe one of the hundreds of humanoid alien species that had settled in and around National City in the last several decades, someone escaping persecution or poverty or possible extinction. It was only after Lillian's jailbreak and two subsequent Cadmus-related near-death experiences did she allow herself to confirm it in her mind. Kara Danvers, her only friend in National City, is indeed Supergirl. The Last Daughter of Krypton. The Maiden of Might. And a good person. A fundamentally good, decent being who only wanted everyone to be happy and safe and to make things right in the world. She set a standard for people, a standard of hope and light. Cat Grant certainly thought so. In a way no one else understood, Supergirl certainly effected Lena. There was no "oh you should have told me" argument between the women. Lena was understanding. Though she didn't necessarily agree with the subterfuge, Lena was intelligent and perceptive. She of all people deeply understood the necessity for a divide. A division between personal and professional lives would make it easier for Kara to keep her loved ones out of the way of any sort of trouble or harm. Well, in a conventional situation that would be the case. Lena had only become more comfortable with flying since realizing that Kara and Supergirl are one-and-the-same. Which is why Kara was currently flying to the local grocery store with Lena in her arms. Soaring above the buildings, peeking into the windows of the tallest ones, Lena surprised herself by truly adoring the feeling of the wind in her hair as she wrapped her arms around Kara. Kara Danvers was Supergirl, sure but she was also Lena's very own super girl. How did she ever get this lucky? There were times it still didn't seem real and she often pinched herself upon waking up in the morning.

Then something came to her. Kara was flying! If she was flying, then that meant the patch that Alex and Winn helped whip up for her was no longer working. Or at least wasn't working like it was supposed to. That could be potentially problematic. What if the patch no longer functioning led to a miscarriage? She didn't want to think of that grim possibility, but Lena did feel it needed to be voiced regardless.

"Kara, are you sure this is okay?" The brunette asked. "What about the twins? The patch has been dying."

"The twins are full Kryptonian, Lena. Astra told me it's fine. They're going to be okay. I promise."

"You're sure?"

"I am."

And with that, Kara set Lena down in front of Nordstrom's.

"Voila!" She smiled.

The rest of the morning and the afternoon unfolded like a montage in one of those super-cheesy romantic comedies that Lena absolutely adored and Kara thought were over-the-top and kinda dumb. Shopping, eating, trying various quick in and out places, and just soaking up each others' presence. It was the pleasure of Kara's company that the very soft, very whipped CEO of L-Corp needed most today.

The sun was setting behind them, and the pair found themselves unusually happy for the first time in a while.

"Thank you," she whispered, hand intertwined in Kara's as they walked side by side, her head resting gently on the other's shoulder. Kara giggled and adjusted her glasses with her free hand. While she wished she could just be herself around Lena in public, Kara still worried people would recognize her if she didn't maintain her street clothes on the daily.

"There's an L-Corp gala this weekend. Saturday, actually. I would love it if you came," Lena tried.

Kara almost scoffed, but not in a mean way. "And why would I not go to my own girlfriend's party?"

The word stopped Lena dead in her tracks. If we're being entirely honest, it stopped Kara as well. There hadn't yet been a label placed upon what they were, and the word made Lena's eyes sparkle. Righting her posture, she looked a bit dumbfounded for lack of a better term. Shocked and yet elated. Lena liked that word. Elated.

"Girlfriend, huh?"  
Kara processed the word had actually left her mouth. She wasn't just thinking the response to Lena's invitation had in fact verbalized it. She smiled back, just as brightly if not more so than her lover.

"I-" Lena began, but that was all her phone allowed her to say since it went off, _**rather loudly**_ , in her pocket. Lena jumped at the sound. She tried to hide it, but she jumped. Like a kid. Kara practically snorted with laughter. "Sorry, I thought I turned the volume down," she turned beet-red and answered.

"Alex? Hey! Hey, slow down. Slow down, Alex. Breathe, tell me what's going on." Her eyes went wide as saucers. "Laurel… what? Laurel is in labor? Great! Well, we have loads of time, right? We're in town, I don't want to distract her or anything, we can come back when- oh. Oh! Okay!" Then she went pale. "What do you mean, there's another thing? Alex? What about Mon-El?" Lena couldn't speak any more. Neither could Kara. Lena practically dropped her phone, and would've were it not for Kara's reflexes. Kara had used her superhearing on the last part of that call.

"Mon-El is dead." Kara's voice was hollow.

"Alex says Laurel is experiencing something called precipitous labor. Doesn't sound too good."

"We better get back," Kara agreed, and after she took a moment to process what exactly happened, she grabbed Lena and their bags and off they went back to that cabin.

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"NNNAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOO!" Laurel yelled, hunched over the couch as a contraction crashed into her. The laboring woman had long since shed any clothing except for the nursing bra she had been wearing since that morning. She'd heard contractions were intense, but she thought they were supposed to gradually increase and not be the epitome of suffering all at once?! Geez. The contractions had picked up again almost two hours ago and it felt like they weren't letting up in any way.

"It feels like just one!" Laurel cried out, reaching blindly behind her for Maggie, who was applying counter pressure to her back. "Not helping!" And Maggie stopped, instead resolving to just hold Laurel's groping hand.

"You can do this, Lance," the detective encouraged. "You can!"

"What do you mean, 'it just feels like one'?" Alex dapped a cold cloth onto Laurel's forehead. The poor dear was hot and freaking out, and coldness or dampness always seemed to soothe Laurel, so she requested the admittedly cliché cold-rag thing happen. Alex had done it without hesitation.

"Like one big contraction," Laurel panted, tightening her grip on Maggie's arm.

"OOOhhhh!" Laurel bellowed.

"Mags, stay with her," Alex nodded to her girlfriend and disappeared upstairs momentarily.

Inside Astra's room sat Lor-Zod, elbows resting on his knees, as he looked forward. He seemed lost, even as Astra sat with him. "You were always a good boy," Astra smiled.

Lor had no response to that bit of praise or whatever it was supposed to be. He felt like a monster.

"My father-"

"Your father manipulated both you and Kara," came Alex's voice as she entered the bedroom. She stood, arms folded, in the threshold, not entering or exiting. Not even really looking all that angry despite her obviously internally boiling with rage at what was happening. "You are not at fault if what you say is true. When Kara gets here, and after that baby comes out, the two of you need to have a long talk."

Lor seemed more defeated than anything else at Alex's statement. It was a statement of fact, that's all it was, not a threat or something similarly hardcore. Alex Danvers, Rao bless her, was very hardcore. She didn't say anything else, just turned and went back downstairs.

"Alex!" Laurel cried, causing the elder Danvers to race back downstairs. James had helped move her to the couch, where she sat with her legs wide. With tired, pain-dulled eyes, Laurel looked straight in James' face. "Please make it stop."

James wanted to cry. He hated seeing her like this. "I can't, Laur. I'm sorry. Hey," he brushed her hair out of her face, "do you remember when we were kids? You, me, and Lucy would go and make up all these mock trials? I was the judge and you two were the lawyers? Huh?"

Laurel nodded, suddenly unable to communicate, as she balled up a bit of his shirt in her fist. That pressure kept building and building and building.

"Yeah," James continued. "Yeah. You and Lucy used to get into these heated arguments about-"

"YYUUHHH-UUGGHHHHHH!" Laurel yelled, wrapping both the armrest and his shirt in a vice grip.

This was the scene Alex made it back downstairs in time to witness. Her heart broke for Laurel. Just half an hour prior she was screaming about how "massively fucked up" this was, and now she couldn't even speak.

"RRRnnn," Laurel grunted, ducking her head.

"Hey, I think she's pushing," Maggie motioned for Alex to join the trio. And Alex would've joined them, if the door to the outside hadn't come _flying_ through the living room. James and Maggie curled themselves over Laurel as the door careened over them. Alex tried to find the source of the sailing furniture.

"Shit," she cursed.

General Zod of Kandor strode in, looking at Laurel like a dog in heat.

"There they are. I've just come to collect what is mine. From the looks of Laurel, our son will be here any moment."

Laurel wasn't listening, so inside of herself all of a sudden that she could do nothing but concentrate solely on the task at hand. "NNNNnnnnggghhh!" She grunted, pushing again, as James picked her up and carried her to the door to the staircase leading to the basement, which Maggie more than obliged to open for them. "Go, we'll hold him off."

"He'll kill the both of you!"

"We'll hold him off for as long as we can. Go! Get down there!"

James bounded downstairs, his patient in tow, as Maggie latched shut the door behind him. The action only made Zod chuckle.

"You think that can bar me from her, from our son?"

"That is not your son," Alex snarled, diving into the utility closet. Where was it? She scoured for a moment, flinging things over, until she found it. Her Kryptonite sword! Dashing back outside, she got there just in time to get between Zod and Maggie; she leveled the weapon at the Kryptonian. He just cocked his eyebrow.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Alex thought aloud.

The general wore a Kryptonite-proof suit, much like the ones Astra and Non had fashioned two years prior. Zod drew his own sword and lunged at Alex, who parried and responded with her own thrust.

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Thankfully, the basement area also served as an extra room for guests and there was an old bed downstairs waiting for them. One look from Laurel though and that idea was quickly discarded. Upon being released from James' hold, Laurel immediately grabbed onto the bed's metal frame, dropped into a squat, and bore down again. _**HARD.**_

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Alex ducked as Zod swung his sword at her neck, slashing his suit horizontally across the chest, and using the momentary distraction to kicks Zod to the ground. Leveling the weapon at her downed opponent, Alex couldn't deny the satisfied smirk at crept across her features at seeing the man who hurt his sister at her mercy. Drawing the blade back over her head, she looked into Zod's eyes as she prepared to land the killing blow.

She rotated her arm down, down, down toward Zod's head. Oh, so close to avenging her sister's violation and the violation of so many other men and women in the name of "survival". Then she could no longer move her arm down toward her enemy. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Maggie holding her forearm in one hand and the weapon in the other. The sword had cut into Maggie's palm and drawn blood.

"What are you doing?! He-"  
"You remember how killing Astra fucked you up? Zod wants you to kill him. You read his case file, same as me. He thinks we're barbaric. I'm not denying that this asshole deserves whatever he gets, but not by your hand. You end him now, you prove him right. Strike him down, more will follow. His soldiers are fanatically loyal to him. What do you think they'll do when they find out a human took him out? That said human is related to Supergirl? They know of her connections to the DEO, to CatCo. They will slaughter everyone that Kara loves, that you love."

Zod grinned. "She's not wrong." Alex ran through every possibility in her mind. Zod deserved to die, no contest. Finally tearing herself from Maggie's grip, she threw her sword behind her. In a blink, Zod vanished.

"Yaaaaahhh-haa!" came Laurel's voice from downstairs.

"Come on, Alex."

The couple bounded down the stairs to Laurel to find that Astra and Lor were in the basement as well. Lor was off to the side while Astra was sitting on the bed, looking down at Laurel and humming what sounded to Alex like a Kryptonian lullaby or some other song meant to bring peace and relaxation to the recipient. Laurel, for her part, was sweaty and still squatting. All of a sudden she cried out, a harsher sound than before, and her head shot back with surprise as she gasped.

"Head's out," James confirmed.

Alex immediately crouched by Laurel, just as she had done for most of the last 2.5- almost three, holy fastness Batman!- hours.

"Hello?" Kara's unmistakable worry wafted down from upstairs.

"We're down here!" Maggie called as Kara and Lena made their way into the space. Kara caught Lor out of the corner of her eye and nodded. Just nodded, didn't say a word. They had more important matters to attend to at present.

"Come on, girl," Alex rubbed Laurel's back. "Come on, sweetie."

"I'm scared," Laurel sobbed. "I can't…"

"Hey, hey, yes you can. You can, I promise. Just one more really big push. Big push, okay? Like you've been doing. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah," Laurel panted. James was on her other side, while Lena was behind her. "Catch?"

"I'll catch him," Lena promised.

"Ready, Laurel? One, two, three, push! Push push! Hard!"

Laurel did as commanded. "Nnnngghhhh!" She strained with all her might, desperate for it to be over.

Kara watched helplessly. Looking back over at Lor, she nodded toward the stairs. A universal body language that meant 'follow me'. And so he did. The pair ascended the staircase.

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Kara sat down on the couch; Lor joined her.

"Well, this place could use a bit of a pick-me-up," Kara observed dryly at the dusty, partially destroyed living room. Lor laughed at that. "Indeed, it does," he concurred.

"We lost a friend today. A good man. Not a great man, but an okay man. He had his flaws, but he tried to be better."

"I am very sorry."

How did Lor come to be here?

And thus comes the dawn.

"You were the one," Kara smiled.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You were the one who got my sister and her friends out of there alive."

Lor looked down almost shyly.

"It was, wasn't it?"

He looked up again, smiling. "Yes. I did. I am sorry for your loss."

"How did Mon-El die? The Daxamite, how did he die?"

Lor took a deep breath. He had nothing to hide. "Saving the homosexuals." A blunt description, but an accurate one. Just as Lor was about to elaborate, a newborn baby's piercing cry filled the air. Kara couldn't help but smile and laugh but carried on with the conversation.

"He saved my sister and Maggie?"

"Your sister?" It took him a moment to discern. "Ah, yes. Your human relative. Yes. I did. Zod's head of security, a human female with blades mounted onto her wrists. Two on each arm. They were long, and I believe one was coated in lead specifically to kill the Daxamite. She skewered him through the back and out his chest before we could get to him." His tone was detached, but Kara could sense the subtext- the guilt and sorrow at seeing Mon-El die.

"He is out back in a body bag. We have not yet had time to bury him."

"I will tell his colleagues at the DEO. The Department of Extra-Normal Operations, it's where he worked. Sort of." Lor chuckled again.

"Lor-"

"I know. I know. You are with the human woman now. I am not jealous. I don't think jealousy was a concept in the Military Guild. And I am also sorry about…" he gestured to Kara's still very-flat abdomen. "I am sorry…"

The tears came fast and hard. From the both of them. Kara hugged him and held him, and they buried their faces inside each other's necks. They cried for Krypton, for what the other had lost, and for the travesty that had been visited upon them both. The heinous stripping of free will and consent as if they were barely more than reproductive stock, animals to be forcibly bred of machines to be done away with when their purpose was accomplished.

They would settle this, all of them. They would make this right, and not even Rao himself could stop them.

This. Nightmare. Will. End.


	9. Reinforcements

**Chapter 9: Reinforcements**

It seemed Zod had gotten Alex's message loud and clear: Kara and Laurel were well-defended. There had been radio silence from the Kryptonian war criminals and their nefarious operations since Laurel gave birth. Of course, no one was naïve enough to expect this waking nightmare to be over.

Everything was quiet, peaceful even, given the circumstances. Lena had even taken to playing with the baby in the morning to give Laurel a few more hours of rest.

Today began as an ordinary day, well as normal as could be expected. As Lena gazed down at the milk-drunk infant, the doorbell rang and someone knocked ever-so-politely on the door. Setting the boy down in the Fisher Price rocker she had purchased some days before, Lena grabbed a frying pan and cautiously made her way to the door. First gazing into the peephole, Lena made an audible yet short sigh of relief at seeing Winn Schott on the other end. Opening the door, she smiled, "Winn, hi," all the while trying to hide the frying pan behind her back.

"Is, uh, is Laurel here? Clark told me about… yeah. I just wanted to check on her. See how she's doing."

A tense moment, and then Lena brightened again as she wordlessly ushered him inside.

Laurel's son was four weeks old when Winn showed up at the cabin. Truth be told, it wasn't the first thing Laurel expected when she woke up that morning but there he was, rocking nervously on his heels in typical Winn fashion. Also in typical Winn fashion, he began what was supposed to be something resembling human speech with a stuttering and bumbling of word vomit.

"L-Hi-Laurel- I was looking for- didn't think you would be here- there's a baby!"

"What an astute observation," Laurel joked as she glanced down at the infant fussing in her arms. "Come in," she ushered him inside and closed the door behind him.

Once Winn had sat on the couch, rubbing his hands on his upper legs (his usual nervous tick), Laurel put the kid down for a nap and joined him on the couch.

"Looks like I have a lot to catch up on."

"Yeah," she exhaled a shaky breath. "Yeah, we do. Has Kara told you what happened to her?"

"That she was abducted and forcibly impregnated by some classist asshat as part of a breeding program to continue the Kryptonian race here on Earth? She has."

Laurel could only nod at his explanation, the tears she hadn't even realized were there already spilling over. Her reaction was the only confirmation that Winn needed.

"Did- is that kid…?" He sighed and gathered her into his arms, "Oh sweetie" and Laurel clung to him. She had gone so long without physical contact meaning something positive, something happy and safe. She always felt safe with Winn. He always felt safe with her. Today was no different, but the circumstances were. Winn just held her, not saying a word. Nothing of comfort or trying to shush her, nothing about how he was there. Because it wasn't something that needed to be said; it was obvious and it was unspoken. That was always their bond. The strength of it. It will always be their bond, whether they were together platonically or romantically.

When she was done, Laurel sighed deeply and blinked away the physical remnants of her suffering. "I've missed you," she smiled.

"I've missed you too," Winn replied. "I'm gonna keep you safe from them."

"How? They're everywhere. They're aliens, besides, so fragile little you and I don't stand a chance against them."

"We can try."

"Can Quentin come?"

"Your dad? Laurel, your dad died-"

"The baby. I named him after my dad. I know he's half-Kryptonian, but we can't let him grow up in Zod's shadow. He deserves better than that monster as a father."

"Laurel, I..."

"I know. You have that Lyra girl. It's stupid."

"Zod actually killed her. A few weeks back."

Laurel looked like someone had broadsided her with an 18-wheeler. _Son of a bitch._

"Winn, I'm sorry."

"Thanks," he gave a weak half-smile. Always trying to remain positive and idealistic in every situation. Part of why Laurel fell for him in the first place. They were each other's safe places and that was an exceedingly rare thing. Try as they might, such a feeling could not be replicated with anyone else.

"You're right," Winn broke through the fog of Laurel's New-Mom brain. "You and I are gonna take your son and we are gonna get out of here. Far away. Superman has a lot of colorful friends who can help keep us safe."

If Laurel could have squeezed the life out of him with the strength of her hug, she would've. "Thank you, Winn. Thank you so much." Of course, such a thing wouldn't be easy and they both knew this information painfully well.

"Laurel, are we gonna have to get, like, fake identities or something?"

"In all probability."

"Cool." He rested his head against hers and kissed her nose. The gesture made Laurel light up. Getting her nose smooched always made her happy.

Kara watched all this unfold, leaned against the railing of staircase leading to the second floor, a bright smile adorning her features. Tuning her hearing to the sleeping hybrid baby upstairs, she was content upon picking up the rhythmic breathing patterns that denoted sleep. It wouldn't be hard to keep the baby controlled and under wraps, at least now when his powers were nonexistent. The boy could easily pass as human until puberty. Her own babies on the other hand…

A familiar voice pulled her out of her head. What did the voice say?

"Do not be afraid, Little One." Astra. "Justice will be served."

Kara leaned back and Astra instinctively wrapped her arms around her niece. The younger Kryptonian rested her head on Astra's shoulder, closing her eyes and just breathing her aunt is.

"You smell like cinnamon," Kara giggled.

"I have been spending some downtime with Lyra Strayd," Astra joked.

"Was that a joke?"

"Indeed" and Kara could hear her aunt's smile.

Definitely a #proudniece moment there.

"You know I am always here for you," Astra whispered, to which Kara nodded but did not verbally respond. Such a declaration didn't really need a verbal response. "Always. No matter what."

"Is it wrong for me to wish that Krypton had a concept of capital punishment?"

Astra's brow furrowed as she thought about what Kara was saying. Realization struck as she turned Kara around in her arms.

"We are not on Krypton," the soldier stated. "We are not on Krypton."

The doorbell rang just as Astra looked as though she were about to continue. "I'll get it," Lena called out.

Making her way to the door, she spotted the frying pan she had previously discarded. "Probably gonna need this," she muttered under her breath.

Turns out, the man on the other side of the door was in fact in need of a good whack with a frying pan. Or three. Or ten. Pulling the hinged, aesthetically pleasing wooden barrier toward her, Lena frowned at her uninvited and certainly unwelcome visitor. She would know that smug grin and stubble-that-was-always-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-beard-but-never-quite-attained-bearddom anywhere. "Maxwell Lord. To what do I owe the magnitudinous displeasure?"

Lord opened his mouth to say something but stopped short, jaw hanging open ever so slightly.

"What, cat got your tongue?" Then Lena noticed that Lord wasn't looking _at_ her, but _behind_ her. Strange, Lord never struck her as one to stare. Turning around so as to view the object of his discomfort, as anything that made Maxwell Lord uncomfortable was a positive, she saw Kara. _Shit! He can't know, too, can he? If he knows, does that mean someone worse than him knows too? Does Lex?!_

"Kara, babe, go back inside. I'll handle this."

Kara had that stubborn, steely expression that her friends knew so well. She planted her feet.

"I'm gonna stay. What the hell are you doing here?"

Lord switched back into his default Lex-like overconfidence as he began speaking. "I came to offer my services. A little birdie told me what the Kryptonians have been up to and I am, quite frankly, thoroughly disgusted. Breeding livestock is one thing, but this is a whole new level of rights violation. Now, I know just little old me can't help you on my own; I brought along a friend who has considerably more resources than I."

 _A friend?_ Lena mentally and physically rolled her eyes. _Perfect. Someone else who can potentially take advantage of this already precarious situation._

Lord made a little motion with his head, tilting it to one side as if to signal whoever-it-was to join him. His "friend" rounded the corner and leaned against the doorframe. He was dressed in a nice business suit, black with white cufflings. His black shoes were polished. Just as Lena remembered.

Tall, about 5'11".

Simultaneously physically imposing and emotionally disarming. Prison must've served him well; he was lean and muscular enough to be conventionally attractive but not overly fit.

 _Bald_.

It was Lena's turn to look dumbstruck. This can't be right! He was supposed to be serving multiple consecutive life sentences, wasn't he?! Now Lena definitely knew this whole thing had to be a nightmare. Things like this couldn't just happen. Still, she couldn't stop the name tumbling from her lips in abject awe and terror. Kara must've noticed what Lena thought to be an imperceptible change in posture, for she had wrapped her arms protectively around Lena from behind within microseconds of the elder Luthor sibling becoming visible.

"Lex!?"

"Been a long time, sis."


	10. Fire

**Chapter 10: Fire**

Kara woke next to Lena, as she had done every morning for the last three months and change. Lena unconsciously snuggled closer to her, and Kara giggled as she kissed the raven-haired CEO's nose. Lena hummed in her sleep, but otherwise remained undisturbed. There was a certain serenity here that the Kryptonian did not dare disturb. She couldn't think of a time where she saw Lena Luthor so… relaxed! It was a sight for sore eyes. Kara gently reached one arm out from underneath the covers and lightly bopped Lena's nose. Well, not bopped. More like gently tapped. Kara then took a moment to just stare at the ivory-skinned beauty with which she shared a bed. A millisecond later and Kara ran her finger over the contours and edges of Lena's face. Her jawline, her nose, her lips, her eyebrows. _Rao_ , Kara thought, _how did I get to be so lucky?_

The blonde ended this little exploration by pulling Lena's limp head toward her and kissing her forehead.

Then she sensed something, a third presence in their little slice of paradise. Rolling her eyes and huffing, Kara turned away from Lena's warm sleeping form and looked over to the doorway, where Astra cocked an eyebrow- a decidedly human expression she'd picked up somewhere- and had her arms folded over her chest.

"I take it you had quite the evening of… exercise with Miss Luthor last night?"

Kara sat up, bending over to grab her shirt and pulling it over her head. When her vision was no longer obstructed by a garment being positioned onto her body, Kara turned red as she tried to purse her lips so a smile didn't form.

It didn't work.

Astra chuckled and turned to walk out of the room. A definite universal communication: follow me.

Sighing, Kara pursed her lips. She had no intention of leaving this bed, of leaving Lena, today. Why couldn't things just go according to plan just this once?

Dragging herself out of the room and downstairs, the bleary-eyed mother-to-be rubbed her eyes and was greeted with the sight of Alex and Maggie in full tactical gear.

"Alex? Mags? What're you guys doin'?" She yawned.

Alex replied by cocking her very large shotgun twice. Maggie nodded over to her left, a direction the sleepy Kryptonian had not yet looked. Lor was made up in similar attire. Then the door opened and Clark sauntered in. He'd just come in from a rather unpleasant task, which he performed out back without so much as a question. The dirt under his fingernails told Kara everything she needed to know. He had just finished burying Mon-El.

The small funeral was the previous night, with Mon-El buried in the woods under a large rock. Six feet under, as per human custom, and still sealed tight inside the body bag in which he was carried back to Lena's cabin.

"He died with honor," Astra stated reverentially. It was true, he did, and for all his faults he was a fundamentally good being. For all his talk about not being good enough and being selfish, for remaining the way he was despite the perfect impetus to change and lead the Daxamites to a new age of equality and an overall better society, Mon-El, Crown Prince, had proven Kara's philosophy right in the end: all beings are fundamentally good, even if it takes massive work to see said goodness in their hearts.

The one exception to this philosophy was Lillian herself. Kara believed her to be evil to the core. Lillian was xenophobic, classist, and a terrorist to boot. Three strikes in Kara's book.

So why, again, was the devil woman in their presence? Not that Kara was immensely surprised; she was Lex and Lena's mother, and if Lex had become involved in their anti-Zod plan then it would logically follow that Lillian would as well.

Much to everyone's chagrin, the resources at the disposal of Cadmus would be invaluable in the take-down to come.

Lillian stood in the back like some evil snake just waiting to strike at its intended victims. The pregnant woman glared at Lillian from across the room, having half a mind to verbalize her displeasure at the Luthor matriarch's existence. Unfortunately, in the three days since Lex arrived, Kara had used the pregnancy brain 'I-forgot-about-her' excuse one too many times for such an inquiry to continue to be believable. Besides, Kara believed such things as pettiness to be beneath her so she settled for the death glares.

Having had her fill of morally pitch-black individuals for one day, Kara crept back upstairs and to the bedroom she shared with her… girlfriend? She supposed that's what they were, although no official label had been applied to them save for Maggie's incessant teasing.

Kara crouched down by Lena's side of the bed, eventually folding out her legs so she was sitting on her haunches. She waited until she didn't hear any heartbeats downstairs (an agonizing 20 minutes) before finally nudging Lena awake.

Lena did not wake immediately. She had become quite the heavy sleeper since Kara had start sleeping in her bed with her. Especially after they did more than sleep in the same bed together. Since Kara's departure from the mattress and mound of pillows, Lena's body had twisted so as to occupy almost the entirety of the bed herself. The covers were halfway off of her, her arms were up above her head at odd angles, one forearm laying over her face, her mouth opened as one half of her face was pressed into the pillow, and she snored. Ever so softly, but she still snored. Lena never snored. Must've been a good night's sleep.

Dimly, Lena became aware of an acute pressure being applied rapidly to the space between her shoulder blades. A finger. Someone was poking her!

Groaning, Lena turned over but the poking just continued on her face. Opening her eyes, she saw that it was Kara who was doing the poking and nudging.

"Poke," Kara giggled. Lena giggled too and pulled her up and back onto the bed. Kara was straddling Lena now.

"Hey you," Kara snorted and leaned down, covering Lena's mouth with her own. Lena's hands found their way to Kara's hips.

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Alex and Maggie found the path in the woods with minimal difficulty. J'onn had joined them, in his "official DEO identity" of Henshaw as opposed to his true Martian form. Superman flew above the trees, hoping to act as a diversion.

Sure enough, the diversion worked.

Lor saw light ahead of them, motioning silently for the assembled to follow his lead.

Scandal did not have the patience to deal with intruders today. She had enough issue with the cattle most days, what with their pleading to go home and see their families. They irritated her to no end; she had no idea why Zod insisted on treating them as anything more than broodmares for a objectively perfect species. As the lift made it to the surface and the light spilled in from the outside world, her cybernetic eyes (a gift from General Zod, along with other enhancements) detected Lor. And another Kryptonian. Kara wouldn't dare come back here, would she? No. Had to be Kent. The Superman! The six Kryptonian soldiers that surrounded her fanned out.

"Lor is mine," the head of security growled.

Lor saw Scandal and charged at her.

Alex, Maggie, and J'onn had their own adversaries to deal with.

Scandal ran at Lor, her Lamentation Blades behind her and ready to impale her opponent. Melee was definitely her style, and she intended to utilize it to take out these DEO idiots.

Bullets fired. A chorus of BANG-BANG-BANG, RATATAT-TAT, and the like. Scandal swung her blades at Lor, and one grazed his side.

"Ugh!" He grunted, going down on one knee as Scandal turned and kicked him face first into the dirt. Lor swept Scandal's legs out from under her, but the woman got up and her fist flew at Lor. He caught that first, the blades retracting and extending in an effort to impale his face.

"Do you like my upgrades, boss's boy? Your daddy has been very kind to me."

She pressed on, and Lor used her momentum against her by flipping her over him.

Alex's gun had been sliced in half by a Kryptonian's sword. She recognized the one with whom she tangoed. Car-Vex, she'd been referred to while Alex and Maggie had been imprisoned.

Clark, for his part, was dodging fire from the Military Guild's ground-to-air weapons.

Maggie and J'onn had been quadruple-teamed, but the Martian made short work of their assailants.

"Damn, dude," Maggie chuckled and moved to give him a high-five. She was impeded, however, by a pain in her side. "Ah! Ow!" She stripped off her jacket to find the left side was covered in a rapidly expanding bloodstain. J'onn picked her up, relayed the information to Alex and Clark's minds, and flew to safety.

Lillian kicked the man who had taken it upon himself to assault her, making a move to gouge out his eyes that he quickly blocked. He had been weakened, and she knew why. She never left home without her trusty knife anymore. The Kryptonite knife Cadmus had taken from Astra's corpse shortly after Alex murdered her. Lillian may be older, but her reflexes had not slowed. She followed up a punch to the face with the unsheathing of her Kryptonite knife, which she dragged across the soldier's throat. He showered her with his blood as he collapsed. "Savage," Lillian hissed at him and kicked him the rest of the way to the ground. Ur, she heard his name was. Like that scientist bastard who had spearheaded this horror show.

Car-Vex pinned Alex to the tree and was about to say something when a sharp intake of her own breath interrupted her. She crumbled to the ground almost immediately after, and Astra stood behind the soldier. Her hand held the warrior's still-beating heart. "She died without honor."

Scandal straddled Lor. "Do not worry, son of Zod. I shall give you a death befitting your station." She raised both her arms above her head, too high on adrenaline that Lor had taken a deliberately vulnerable position under her.

A gunshot rang out. Two. Three rounds. Five rounds were pumped into the human traitor's back. Scandal's eyes grew wide and then glazed over as a sixth bullet entered her back. She fell to the side, one of her wrist sets burying itself into the ground. Lor looked up; Alex held the smoking gun.

A loud CLANG and the rending of metal signaled Clark's return. He wasn't alone. Zod fell to the ground in between Alex, Lillian, and Lor, with Clark soon behind. Superman pinned the general the ground, both hands behind his back. Alex rushed over, clapped a pair of Kryptonite-infused cuffs on him.

X=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=X

Winn and Laurel had been asleep the whole day, cuddled up on the fold-out couch bed. Winn's phone buzzed. The sound was loud enough to wake him, but not loud enough to do the same for the woman in whose embrace he was currently entangled. He checked his notifications. A text from Alex read "It's over. Zod is detained." Winn smiled and nudged Laurel awake.

Lena, hair a mess and glowing, descended the staircase. Winn got up and smiled at her. She gave him a warm hug in response before showing her the text.

Lena almost started bawling right then and there.

Was the horrendous nightmare finally over?

"Where's Kara?" Came Laurel's still half-asleep, groggy voice.

"She went out for the afternoon. You two have slept the day away. It's 4:13."

Winn and Laurel didn't seem too fazed.

"I took care of the boy."

Kara had left at noon, about an hour after the team left to "go fuck up Zod's shit" as Maggie had so eloquently put it.

And fuck up his shit they did.

Lena's phone buzzed, then Laurel's. Images.

"The facility!" Lena explained. "It's infested with federal agents and cops now. Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince even made appearances. The victims are being escorted out."

The news that night read:

"250 women, 214 men rescued from breeding cult." What the DEO had decided to tell the press. Cult would make it easier for the public to demonize Zod even more, make sure his punishment was the maximum possible. "Inhumane experiments conducted on abductees. Ringleader in custody."

Probably a good idea to not mention the alien identities of the perpetrators.

"We decided to stay a bit longer," Laurel reminded Lena as the two women sat on the couch, "until this hell was over." Winn was tending to the boy, playing with the surprisingly alert child. He was only a few days old. Probably had something to do with his hybrid biology.

"Kara decided to stay with Clark and Lois in Metropolis," Lena answered her friends' unspoken question. "For the night, anyway, maybe the next few days."

"That's good," Laurel smiled, "it would do her some good to be in the thick of civilization while this trial goes on."

The broadcast ended as Winn was packing up their things, the boy in a baby carrier on his chest. Lena sighed sadly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You guys really have to go already?"

"Yeah," Winn affirmed. "We want to make it out of state before it gets too late."

"You three keep in touch," Lena hugged Laurel and then Winn in turn, kissing the baby's head and waving 'bye-bye'.

As the new little impromptu family drove off, horror happened. Fire happened.

An explosion.

The damn car went up in flames and debris.

"Noooo!" Lena screamed, running out the door at a breakneck pace but falling onto the front steps in shock and disbelief. She was sobbing not long after, screaming profanities and angry denials through thick sobs at the wreck and the charred corpses of Winslow Schott and Dinah Laurel Lance for the rest of the night.

X=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=X

Maggie was in the hospital because she was doing a good thing. Two of her friends were dead. The former alone was enough to send Alex into a rage. Add the latter and she was a ball of fury and pain. She whaled on Zod in his red-sun cell, pounding and pounding away, kicking and jabbing with her brass knuckles. J'onn had called out in concern, ordered her to stop twice, but eventually gave up. It wasn't like he had any sympathy for the monster she was shit-kicking.

Kara crossed her arms, standing next to J'onn. She'd been crying for most of the way here.

"Bastard deserves it," Lena scowled as she strode up beside Kara and the director.

The beating continued until Zod was almost dead. Only then did Alex Danvers, sister of Kara Danvers and high-ranking agent of the Department of Extra-normal Operations, let up. She exited the cell and walked past the trio without so much as a word.

X=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=X

Three nights later, Zod found himself hooded and dragged into a black van. It was late. Around midnight, a little later. Closer to one o'clock in the morning. The van stopped. His kidnappers opened the door, dragged him out. He recognized the scent. The woods. He didn't recognize the overall terrain though. The hood came off.

They were on a hill. He, Lena, and… a bald man in a suit. A face he recognized. Lex Luthor.

Dru-Zod of Kandor smirked at the humans.

"Do you expect to intimidate me?"

"Did the Director tell you there were amounts of gold Kryptonite in the food you were being given?"

Zod cocked his head to one side in curiosity.

"It removes your abilities," Lena explained, a microsecond before pulling a gun from her coat and shooting him in the knee.

"Aaahgghh!" He yelled, then another in the other knee. Kneecapping, he believed was the term. Seemed commonplace on this planet. Lena strode to him and leveled the weapon at his forehead. It was pressed right between his eyes. Zod sneered, challenging her to do it.

"You won't."  
"Won't I?"

"You're not your mother. You are not your brother either."  
Lex huffed. The ass had a point that he couldn't refute.

"You… killed… two of my friends this week," her voice wavered with more tears threatening to spill. "Dinah Laurel Lance. Winslow Schott. Her son. The son you made her carry."

Zod's reaction could best be described as nonchalant. Externally, anyway. Lena looked into his eyes.

"You care. Don't you dare pretend you don't! Don't you fucking dare, you animal!"

"Animal?!" He barked. "Animal?" Mellow again. Tears were at the corner of his eyes. "You think I enjoyed what I did? Huh?! I had to do it! My race is endangered at best, nearly extinct at worst! Intermingling was the only way to ensure-"

"To ensure what? That you ego survived?" Lex interjected.

"Wouldn't you do the same? You have these… cults, do you not? Or you did, in the past. A way to preserve and prolong bloodlines and the longevity of your people."  
"We have evolved past such things," Lena was cold, unsympathetic. "Kara often told me of your birthing matrixes. Why not use those instead of using almost half-a-thousand people as your lab rats and guinea pigs?"

"We had no matrixes. I did not plant that bomb!"

"Then who did?"

"I have no idea!"

Lena moved on to Kara. "Why her?"  
"Why her?" Zod responded with a tone that conveyed his contempt for her intelligence. He thought her a moron. "She and my son were betrothed." As if that was answer enough.

"You manipulated both of them!"

"For the good of my people!"

Lena never stopped pressing the gun to Zod's head, even as she started crying again. Her vision was blurred by the tears. Zod remained where he was, defiant to the end.

"Well, then I suppose this will be even better for your people…" then she wavered.

Zod took the opportunity to hold the gun steadier for a moment, moved it higher.

"What are you…?"

Zod closed his eyes, dropped his arms to his sides.

"For Krypton. For my people."

"Go directly to hell."

She pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

Zod fell to one side, a bullet hole in the center of his forehead.

Lena dropped the gun.

"He… he's dead…"

She had almost killed John Corbett. Attempted murder wasn't new for her. **ACTUAL** murder, on the other hand, was. She turned away for a split-second.

"Do you have it?"  
"Is this how you want to do this?" Lex asked.

Lena nodded and Lex fished out a lighter.

"We dispose of him the way he got rid of Laurel and Winn: with fire."

She made sure the lighter would light and tossed it on the corpse.

The Luthor siblings watched as Dru-Zod of Kandor burned in the night.


	11. Fallen So Far

Chapter 11: Fallen So Far

The car ride home was long and impossibly short. Lena had never had that experience herself, so now she supposed she had a frame of reference for when people described such an occurrence.

She'd never killed someone before.

Sure, she was willing to when necessary. Defense of a third party and all that.

Hell, her first public appearance in National City ended with her putting a few bullets in an assassin hired by her own damn brother! But now was not the time. Calling Lex out on all the shit he's pulled will have to wait. Her priority is Kara. Kara, Kara, and more Kara. Kara's mental health, her physical wellbeing, her emotional stability. God, how was she going to explain her murdering a man to the woman whose entire moral code swings on the axis of _thou shalt not kill_?

"You'll figure it out," came the voice in the passenger seat, shaking her from her internal turmoil. Well, turmoil would be too harsh a word. Killing Dru-Zod of Kandor was one of the easiest things she'd ever done. To "monster-ize" him was easy. He'd done horrible things, so reducing him down to those horrible things made the very sight of him somehow less repugnant in her eyes. That's kind of fucked up, though, isn't it? The very idea of stripping away someone's identity in order to make something easier. She can think of many regimes throughout history who employed that very tactic. Murder is wrong, everyone knows that. She remembers the many times she's thought of it as a solution to her problems. Thinking like a Luthor, she'd once put it. Well, Lillian would certainly be proud of her, wouldn't she? She's finally thinking like a Luthor.

"Why do you care?" It's the first time she's spoken to Lex since they hiked back to the vehicle and began making their way home. "You don't."

"You do me a disservice, sis."

"Don't do that. Don't talk to me like we still know each other."

"You'll figure it out," Lex repeats, moving the seat back and reclining. Lena couldn't help but smirk at that simple action. Most did people did that when they wanted to sleep, but not Lex. He always did that when she was little, to make her squeal and laugh because _It's gonna eat me, Lex, help!_ Things had been so simple, back then. No Superman, no prison, no mad scientist. Lex was the only person who made her feel welcome in that house. A house is not always a home, and the Luthor Mansion was always a house to her. She had a home, with her real parents. Genetics be damned, Lionel was not her dad. Lex was always the best at saving her from the monsters under her bed or in her closet. Around Halloween, when she was most petrified of the dark, Lex would always come into her bedroom and snuggle with her until she fell asleep. Her big brother, her shining knight in a hollow kingdom. How could they have fallen so far from each other? What the hell happened? She knows what literally happened, but what _happened_? They were thick as thieves growing up and now Lena wouldn't even deign to spit in his direction. Lex was the balm to Lillian's sharp edges and now he was something she could hardly recognize as the man she adored for so long. Idolized, in fact.

Could it be possible to ever get that warmth and love back? Despite herself, Lena pondered this over and over almost every day. Her ceasing to visit Lex in prison was equal parts disgust at what he'd become and disgust at herself for not doing something to stop it. She'd seen the signs. She didn't want to admit it to herself then, it's hard even now to even think it, but she saw them. Isolation, paranoia. Classic supervillain-in-the-making, right? Except supervillains were caricatures that existed in comic books and movies. No way her brother was a supervillain.

Funny, the things we'll do and say to convince ourselves that what is right in front of us cannot possibly be reality. But she will not cry. Not now, not in front of him. She'll keep driving. She has to keep driving. She has to get back to Kara, to make everything okay for the two of them. She'll deal with the remnants later.

So she keeps driving, the personification of her greatest moral failure glancing out the window not a foot from her.

How could they both have fallen so far?


	12. Unexpected

Chapter 12: Unexpected

"You did what?!" Kara's eyebrows shot up so quickly Astra thought they would fly off her head and make little holes in the ceiling. "I'm not surprised, but I'm sorry- you killed Zod?"

Lor has stood by the sink for the past half hour, an improvement from the pacing he'd been occupying himself with since the gang returned home. Even Lillian has nothing to say about the assault on the compound. That being said, anyone could detect the smug satisfaction exuded by her body language. It's Kara whose been the most restless, up all night unable to sleep. It's unlike her, but this situation is incredibly fucked up. How would anyone respond to this? Now, of course, Lena's return and the revelation it brought gave her something to focus on. She looks Lena dead in the eye and repeats her question. "You killed Zod?"

Lena isn't entirely sure how to respond when Kara looks at her that way. This is a fury she's never seen even in Lex's eyes, during the darkest parts of his madness. This is something deeper, more primal. She gulps, does her best to return the Kryptonian's gaze. The only avenue she feels is appropriate at this juncture is to answer immediately and honestly. "Yes, I did."

Kara doesn't even blink. She doesn't yell, doesn't condemn, doesn't rage. She doesn't do anything Lena expected her to do. She simply takes a breath and replies:

"I wanted to be the one."

Um… excuse?

"Kara?"

"I said what I said," the blonde remains stern, arms crossed over her chest as she closes the space between her and Lena. "I wanted to be the one to kill him. For me, for Laurel and Winn, for those hundreds of poor souls he did this exact thing to. But thank you." She kisses Lena's forehead and exhales once more. "I'm gonna go shopping! Do you want to come babe?"

Huh? How could she just deflect like that? Move on so quickly? This can't be normal or healthy, can it? She needs to deal with this, not just brush it off or sweep it under the rug or whatever idiom is appropriate here. Lena doesn't even know how to fully approach the situation Team Supergirl has found themselves in, so how does Kara? This can't be the right way to deal. It just can't. She knows from experience that pushing things down makes them come back tenfold. She's sure Alex can also attest to that certainty. However, perhaps it's best to run with it, let Kara do things at her own pace. If this is what she needs right now then so be it.

X=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=X

Credit cards are to be used frugally, that is what Alex had taught Kara growing up. Although she resented Kara quite a bit for several years, Alex had loved teaching her things and learning how to be a sister. _I promise I'll get better at it_. And she had. Kara was indescribably thankful for Alex, for everything the Danvers family had taught her. In this case, however, credit cards were not to be used frugally. Lena was a bit despondent at this fact. She'd spent the last four hours practically chasing Kara all around downtown, swipes here and swipes there and swipes everywhere. They had to have racked up at least 300 dollars' worth of baby stuff already. "Kara, sweetheart, slow down please!"

Kara did not slow down.

X=x=x=x=x=x=X

Upon their arrival home, Kara flopped into bed and beckoned Lena to her. The brunette did not require much convincing as far as that went. Despite the circumstances, the two of them had settled into something resembling normalcy. Kara simply hoped she was strong enough to "see past the hell", as that little dutiful voice in her brain told her, but traumas never played fair. It wasn't the faults of the babies; they didn't ask to exist. And they would have existed anyway if Krypton had never exploded and she'd married Lor as intended. She would defy her captors' nefarious intentions. These children would not be weapons, they would be symbols of hope just like their mother. She would transform the most unethical and inhumane thing imaginable into something good and pure. Though the pain upon which she was visited would stay with her forever, she decided to push that down in favor of duty to her people. This is not how she imagined such a milestone would happen, it's unethical in the utmost, but Kara had a responsibility to her dead race. In any normal circumstance, she would've had the procedure. The abortion. What grew inside were reminders of her torment, no way around that reality. But she was not human, and she was among the last of her kind. She would not allow these horrors to overtake her. This is her choice, her cross to bear. Maybe she is carrying on with it partially out of spite and hatred toward those who did this to her. Maybe. The cold hard alien aspect of her saw minimal issue with this, but Kara Danvers knew Lena and Alex (Maggie, too, for good measure) would probably look at her strangely. She has always been fiercely pro-choice ever since she was old enough to understand it all, and this was her choice. She understands that most humans would disagree vehemently with her, but she is not human. Her morality is different than theirs.

Such a conversation would come later. Right now, all she worried about was the safety of the very fragile human she has come to call her own. Her love. Her mate. She nuzzled her lover and kissed Lena's nose. "I'm gonna teach you Kryptonian," she whispered as Lena fell asleep beside her.


End file.
